Shade Of Grey
by Immortal Horse
Summary: "...She took out of a picture of an Infernape, a Garchomp, a Roserade, a Gyarados, a Staraptor, a Luxray and a much younger Rachel..." Rachel never wanted to look back, but as she travelled though Unova with her friends; Hilbert, Bianca and Cheren. She learned that no matter where you hide, no matter how far you run; the past will always catch up with you. CherenxBianca, NxRachel
1. Chapter 1

**I do not own Pokémon, nor do I own ghetsis or any of the characters EXCEPT for Rachel. I don't even own a car… I don't own the Hunger Games either. I don't own skylanders either or Mario or Harry Potter**

**Rated T for violence, some censoring, a bit of N/Rachel (aka Hilda) frinamy (i think i spelled that right...) and mentions of the Hunger Games' awesomeness, oh and complete randomness.**

**Sorry for some OOCness too**

*cue dramatic music*

…

Shade of Grey

(Flash-forward)

"You mean this was all a ploy? A horrible scheme?" Rachel cried out in disbelief

"Yes, it is my glorious…" ghetsis started, sneering

"WHY senor grasshead why?!" Rachel sobbed, falling to the floor "you didn't have to do all this and ruin poor N's life like that! You could have just asked me for my brownies!"

To this day Hilbert would swear there was a record scratch, everyone stared at Rachel, mouths agape

"You… you thought this whole 'get the white stone, face N, defeat TP's evil schemes' thingy was about… BROWNIES!" Hilbert asked, breaking the silence

"It wasn't?" Rachel asked him right back

"Didn't you listen as Ghetsis gave his horrible, run-of-the-mill villain speech…"

Ghetsis looked offended "WHAT?! My speech was awesome I tell you! Fear it! Fear my intentionally flawed words!"

"…About taking over unova and how he has delusions of grandeur about being ruler?" Hilbert continued, ignoring Ghetsis. The dark haired boy looked at his friend in amazement

"I don't think she's mentally… stable" N told Hilbert carefully

"I wouldn't take unova over for brownies!" Ghetsis added "I don't even like them!"

Rachel gasped in horror "How COULD you betray me like that!" she sobbed "I thought you my brownie kin!"

"I think you're right N- she's NOT mentally sable" Hilbert told the green haired teen, the two looked at each other and shrugged

(End flash-forward)

Chapter 1

"_Life isn't black and white. It's a million grey areas, don't you find?"_ Ridely Scott

It was a stormy morning in nevema town, quite unideal to start a journey in, but hey! This is a story, anything can happen!

"Chery dear, I think Bianca's late… again" a short teen of 16 drawled out as she lay on an unmade bed

"Stop calling me that! It's Cheren! Not chery!" a dark haired teen hissed, narrowing his eyes at the girl "And I mean it Rachel!"

"You know chery" the girl, Rachel said, turning over on her stomach and facing the teen "if you didn't have glasses, you'd be tall, dark and" she paused for effect "down right creepy"

Cheren glared at her and tossed a book at Rachel who dodged it lazily

"Will you two lovebirds quit?" Hilbert asked as he was playing Tetris on his computer "I'm in the middle of a game!"

"I'm here!" Bianca called, walking into the room before Hilbert was murdered "let's open that gift!"

Rachel quickly got off the bed "Ooo! I wanna read the note!" she called

"Go ahead" Hilbert got off his computer and went over to Cheren

Rachel laughed and ran over to the box, she grabbed the note, turned to face her friends and read "'Dear Big mouth midgets, I have run off with bowser to kill Peach and marry Mario'…"

"The real note!" Cheren cried to her while Bianca giggled and Hilbert groaned

"pfft" Rachel wadded up the note and tossed it to Hilbert as lightning illuminated the window behind her

"That was creepy" Bianca said

Rachel opened the box to see three pokéballs "only three" she murmured "that means…" she picked up the pokéballs and tossed them at her friends "let the fates decide! RACHEL USED FLING!"

Both Cheren and Bianca managed to catch their pokéballs but Hilbert's hit him the stomach, causing him to fall on the floor on his back.

"Owww" he groaned, accidently letting the Pokémon out

"tepig!" the Pokémon cried from on his stomach

"How come you got to choose my Pokémon for me?" Cheren asked, looking at Rachel

The teen put her hands on her hips and death glared Cheren "are you QUESTIONING my motives?" she asked icily, making Hilbert and Cheren shudder and cower in fear "I'll have you know that Dumbledore is very old!"

Both Cheren and Hilbert had a WTG (what the giratina) expression on their faces; Bianca only shook her head at her friends

"I'm not complaining, I wanted Oshawott anyway" Cheren quickly amended, letting the water type out of his pokéball

"That means Bianca has Snivy" Hilbert put in

"No duh Sherlock!" Bianca snorted, clutching her pokéball

"I know! Let's battle!" Rachel randomly piped up; she grinned at everyone and stepped up on the rug, getting a pokéball from her pocket

"In my room? Are you kidding?! My mom will kill me!" Hilbert was horrified

"Not likely" Cheren said "it's more likely she'll drug us, drag us to a forest, chain us up to trees and force us awake. Then she would hand us over to the Capital who would torture us in inhumane and brutal ways and if we're lucky that we somehow manage to survive our tongues will be cut off and we would be forced to become Avoxes to the participants of the Hunger Games, serving them until their untimely deaths…" he trailed off and gave his friends a grave look "and to make matters worse, our first meal as Avoxes would be our own tongues!"

Everyone's reactions were different; Bianca was exasperated, Hilbert was disturbed and Rachel was laughing.

"HAHAHAHA!" she laughed clutching her sides "Chery… you are soooo… CUTE when you… act all… worried!" she said gasping for breath after she finished laughing

"But we can't battle!" Bianca said

"We can do it outside" Rachel said, quickly recovering

"It's raining!" Cheren pointed out as if he were speaking to a child

"No it isn't" Rachel said "look outside if you don't believe me"

So the four of them walked over to the window and lo and behold it was sunny!

"Still don't believe me?" Rachel asked smugly

OOOO

"The battle between Rachel and Cheren will now commence" Hilbert called "each person may use one Pokémon and there will be no substitution. The winner is decided whose Pokémon hasn't fainted. BATTLE BEGIN!

"Oshawott! You're up!" Cheren called as he sent the water type onto the field

"GOOOO INFERNO!" Rachel called, swinging her arm like a windmill before letting her Pokémon –a chimchar- out of her pokéball.

Bianca nearly cooed at the chimchar "I never knew chimchars were so cute!" she squealed

A fiery aura surrounded Inferno "_I AM NOT CUTE_!" she roared "_FEAR ME MORTAL! FEAR ME! OR FACE THE PAINFUL, AWESOME WRATH OF THE ALL MIGHTY, ALL POWERFUL, GREAT CONQUEROR OF GIRATINA; THE EVERLASTING INFERNO!_"

"_Chillax man_" Snivy said from Bianca's shoulder

"_O mighty warrior, thy ego is as giratina's but I fear much larger. O great rival, you say many things, but can you prove thine worth?_" Tepig asked from Hilbert's ankle

Oshawott only stared down Inferno

"Use tackle Oshawott!" Cheren called

"Dodge and use scratch!" Rachel countered, Oshawott ran at Inferno only simply side stepped the water type before scratching him

Oshawott skidded to a stop before running at Inferno again, the chimchar waited before sidestepping again, this time oshawott hit the house.

"OSHAWOTT!" Cheren called "can you battle?"

"Looky at that, even ole dark chery has a soft spot for his starter" Rachel said, giggling to herself

Cheren glared at Rachel murderously "stop calling me that! Ray-Ray" he snarled

Hearing her hated nickname made Rachel stop and glare at Cheren "what. Did. You. Call. Me?!" she asked, her eyes flashing dangerously

"I need some popcorn" Bianca muttered to Hilbert

Rachel took another pokéball out from her pocket "You have 30 second head start before I come over there and personally dismember you limb from limb starting at your toes" she said coldly

Cheren flinched "return Oshawott" he said in a shaky voice before running off towards route 1

"Inferno" she said, the chimcher climbed up on Rachel's shoulder and the teen took off

Bianca and Hilbert looked at each other

"I have to go home now" Bianca shrugged "see ya in an hour, c'mon snivy" the blonde walked away leaving Hilbert in his mom's semi destroyed backyard

"Well that was fun, wasn't it tepig?" Hilbert asked his starter

"_Sure was O mighty warrior_!" the fire type agreed

"we'd better go and get ready" Hilbert shrugged and the two walked towards the door

OOO

"NO! NO! A THOUSAND TIMES NO!"

"I'm not a child anymore daddy! I have a PhD for Arceus' sake!" Bianca cried out "logistically speaking, people who go on journeys become better people!"

"You are still too young!" Bianca father, Prof. Smith protested

"I'm old enough to go to college and get a PhD but too young to go on a journey? There is no logical argument!" Bianca countered, she stormed out the door

"Nice" Hilbert grinned at his friend after she'd walked out of her home "that'll stall him"

"Hopefully" Bianca told him "now, don't we have to meet prof. Juniper?"

"Yeah" Hilbert scratched the back of his head "but we should recuse Cheren first…"

The two looked at each other and ran towards where Cheren had run.

Bianca and Hilbert found the two by route one with Rachel glaring at cheren who was perched high in the tree

"Give it up! You'll never be able to out run me" Rachel snarled as she glared up at cheren

"Try me!" was cheren's reply as he clung to the trunk

"Uh, Rachel? Prof. Juniper wants to see us" Hilbert said, silently praying

"Really? Then what are we waiting for?" Rachel asked, cheering up and running towards the lab

Cheren, Hilbert and Bianca sweatdropped

"I swear she has bipolar disorder" cheren commented as he gratefully climbed down

"I think you're right" Bianca added "or split personalities"

The three looked at each other and shrugged before walking towards prof. Juniper's lab.

**I know, I'm evil, but next chappie is when they get their dexes and they meet a certain grasshead (*cough cough*N*cough cough*)**

**Please review! All flames will be stamped upon by Rachel!**


	2. Chapter 2

**I do not own Pokémon, nor do I own ghetsis or any of the characters EXCEPT for Rachel. I don't even own a car… I don't own the Hunger Games either. I don't own skylanders either or Mario or Harry Potter**

**Rated T for violence, some censoring and mentions of the Hunger Games' awesomeness, oh and complete randomness.**

**Sorry for some OOCness too**

*cue dramatic music*

…

Shade of Grey

Chapter 2

Sure enough, Rachel was waiting for them in front of Prof. Juniper's lab

"Hey Midgets!" she hollered as Cheren, Bianca and Hilbert made their ways over to her

"Hi Rachel" Cheren said rather nervously

"Are we going in?" Hilbert asked

"Yup, are you ready to get our pokedexi?" Rachel asked cheerfully, a complete 180 of her attitude five minutes ago

"pokedexes" Hilbert corrected

"pokedexi, like pegasi" Rachel shot back at him

"What?" Hilbert was confused, Bianca facepalmed

"Look children" she said "we need to get our pokedexes or I won't be able go with you" She told them, grabbing Rachel's wrist with her right hand and Hilbert's with her left, she dragged them into the lab.

"Hello" Prof Juniper greeted them; looking up from her desk, which her head had been resting on moments ago "I've been waiting for you young people…"

"And you're not?" Cheren asked, raising his eyebrow, Prof. Juniper glared daggers at him

"Do you want your Pokédex or not?" she asked though clenched teeth

"Yes please" Cheren whispered

"Then SHUT UP!" the good professor roared "Now, time for formalities -and i hate this part too-, I am Professor Juniper and I am researching how Pokémon came into…"

"I thought you were retiring to run off with bowser to kill Peach and marry Mario" Rachel said, shrugging

Professor juniper turned her glare at the brown haired girl "Do YOU want a Pokédex?"

"Well it's what the note said" Hilbert added

Prof. Juniper swore under her breath "wrong note" she muttered, the four teens looked at each other and shrugged

"ANYHOO! I see you all battled…" Prof Juniper tried again

"How can you tell?" Hilbert asked amazed "are you psychic?"

"No, she probably heard, our battles were noisy" Bianca corrected

Prof Juniper growled "YES! You children woke me up! And I was haven't such a nice dream; I was kissin' Valentino by a crystal blue Italian stream!"

Bianca, Cheren, Hilbert and Rachel shared a look

"We didn't need that image" Cheren said carefully

"Does it look like I care?" Prof. Juniper yelled/asked

"Can we have our pokedexes please?" Bianca asked in a small voice

"Here" Prof. Juniper shoved four pokedexes into their hands and five pokéballs each in their other hand "now, goodbye!" she shoved them out the door and closed it with a bang behind her

"soooo" Cheren stated "anyone know how to work these things?"

OOO

"I told you Google had everything" Rachel told Cheren smugly

"Alright, I admit defeat." Cheren told her, reading the online manual for the Pokédex v5.0 "I've got everything – let's go"

The four of them had stuck into Cheren's room via tree and had looked up their Pokédex model for one thing…

"I found the power switch!" Hilbert called triumphantly

Bianca and Rachel groaned "now you find it" the blonde muttered

Cheren got up and turned off his computer "c'mon before prof. Smith find out Bianca's here" he said, walking over to his window, opening it and gets on the tree.

Hilbert and Rachel share a look before both of them raced to the window and at the same time gave a slight jump… and landed on their stomachs on the window rim… squished together

"owwww" they groaned in unison

"Get down! This window ain't big enough for the both of us!" Hilbert told Rachel

Rachel got a glint in her eye "you're right" she wiggled back inside and for a second Hilbert felt the calm before the storm and then he was falling down, luckily for Hilbert, he managed to grab a tree branch for only a second which was enough to slow his fall.

"Rachel" Hilbert said weakly from his position on Cheren's mother's flowerbed "that hurt"

"You are very lucky Hilbert" Cheren told him as he helped his friend up. Hilbert brushed himself off then looked up to see Cheren's smirk "to have such wonderful friends"

"s'not my fault" Rachel grumbled, climbing down from the tree "He started it"

"Coming down!" Bianca called, she flung a make shift rope made from cheren's bed sheets and proceed to walk down the side of the house

"Bianca!" Cheren protested "those were my favorite sheets!"

"So?" the blonde shrugged "you won't be using them"

Cheren could only stare at his friend, his mouth agape

Rachel grinned at her friends, she had moved here 4 years ago and Hilbert quickly introduced her to his friends. Cheren with his Hunger games obsession that had died down a bit, Bianca with brains which she didn't show half the time and Hilbert with his easy going, annoying brother-like ways…

"Hello! Rachel!" Hilbert said, waving his hand in front of her face "c'mon! Let's get a move on!"

As an idea came to Rachel, she grinned widely

"Oh crap" cheren whispered

OOO

"THIS IS THE SONG THAT NEVER ENDS! IT GOES ON AND ON MY FRIEND…" Rachel sang as she dragged Hilbert and Cheren(with Bianca keeping up) though route one, she stopped suddenly by the stream that lead to the ocean

"How do you feel?" she asked, releasing their wrists "we're trainers now!"

"I've been better" Hilbert told her, rubbing his wrist, cheren only nodded

"I have an idea!" Bianca piped up "let's have a contest! To see who has the most Pokémon by the time we reach the accumula pokecenter."

The others nodded in agreement "that'll be fun – so meet at the pokecenter in an hour" Hilbert clearifed

"Yeah" Bianca said

"Let's go!" Rachel pumped her fist and the four scattered.

An hour later…

"how many do you have?" Rachel asked, a little breathless seeing how she just ran up to her friends

"three" Hilbert told her

"two" Bianca and Cheren said at the same time

"me too!" Rachel told them

"it's obvious that Hilbert won something at last!" Rachel joked

"oh be quiet" Hilbert snapped

"Oh look, a bunch of people gather around that little hill like thing. No that DOESN'T seem suspicious at all, completely normal!" Rachel pointed out

"You're scary when you use sarcasm" Hilbert said

"let's go check it out!" Rachel said, grabbing Cheren's wrist and dragging him along to the group

Bianca and Hilbert shrugged and followed them.

Sure enough there were about 9 people dressed in knight garb with a tall green haired man in front of them, he wore a strange robe, but Rachel didn't really notice that, on his left eye he had a metallic red eye patch.

"My name is Ghetsis. I am here representing Team Plasma. Today, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to talk to you about Pokémon liberation" he said, beginning to pace

"TP? They'll have to be carefully about that" Rachel murmured

Bianca shushed her

"I'm sure most of you believe that we humans and Pokémon are partners that have come to live together because we want and need each other. However... Is that really the truth? Have you ever considered that perhaps we humans... only assume that this is the truth?" he questioned

"I think this guy's butter slid off his plate" Cheren muttered to Rachel

"I don't like this" she muttered back

"Pokémon are subject to the selfish commands of Trainers... They get pushed around when they are our "partners" at work... Can anyone say with confidence that there is no truth in what I'm saying?" Ghetsis turned to the crowd, to Rachel, his eye was mocking, daring her to speak out.

"Yes!" Rachel called out; all eyes were on her "You say Pokémon are slaves, but what about trainers who treat their Pokémon with love? With respect? Trainers who care for them? Your statement is false. Not everyone treats their Pokémon like yesterday's trash."

Ghetsis turned his good eye on her, she saw traces of annoyance and something else, much deeper, he paced before facing the crowd and continuing his speech "Now, ladies and gentlemen, Pokémon are different from humans. They are living beings that contain unknown potential. They are living beings from whom we humans have much to learn. Tell me, what is our responsibility toward these wonderful beings called Pokémon?"

"Could it be liberation?" someone asked/muttered

Rachel groaned as Ghetsis continued;

"That's right! We must liberate the Pokémon! Then, and only then, will humans and Pokémon truly be equals. Everyone, I end my words here today by imploring you to consider the relationship between people and Pokémon... and the correct way to proceed. We sincerely appreciate your attention."

The knights packed up and walked off with Ghetsis, or Senor Grasshead as Rachel dubbed him.

"what'dya think?" cheren asked, turning to Rachel

"I dunno; his words are mixed with truth and lies. Recruiting people, is a skill more effective with a mixture of things then with one thing alone." Rachel told him

Hilbert blinked

Cheren nodded in understanding "like in the hunger games."

"Your Pokémon... Just now, it was saying..." someone said, Cheren and Rachel whirled around to see a teen about 16, he had long tea green hair pulled back into a ponytail and grey blue eyes.

"Whoa, slow down" Cheren told him "you speak way too fast. And what do you about Pokémon speaking? That's an odd thing to say."

"Yes, they talk! Oh" the teen looked down, disappointed "you can't hear them, how sad. I'm N"

"I'm Rachel" Rachel grinned at N, who looked a bit taken aback "nice to meet cha!"

"I'm Cheren, I on a journey to fill the Pokédex, my main goal however is to become the champion" Cheren introduced himself

"The champion? Really chery? Of all the possible things to choose you HAD to pick the second most clichéd dream ever!" Rachel groaned

"At least I have a dream!" Cheren narrowed his eyes

"I'm sorry, I didn't hear that. You mumble too much!" Rachel snarled

"PDA! PDA!" Hilbert called

Rachel glared daggers at him "you better sleep with one eye open" she threaten

Hilbert gulped nervously and took a step back, Rachel smirked

"The Pokédex, eh? So... You're going to confine many, many Pokémon in Pokéballs for that, then. I'm a Trainer, too, but I can't help wondering... Are Pokémon really happy that way?" N interupped, pulling out a pokéball

Cheren, Bianca and Hilbert took a step back and Rachel took out a pokéball

"It really depends on the trainer and their attitude" Rachel shrugged

"Well, Rachel, is it? Let us test your theory!"

**I'm evil, I know it. Giving you a cliff hanger.**

**Next chappie is Rachel's battle with N and they reach the next town. Stay tuned and please review!**

**Rachel DOES look like the female player, Hilda (only her shorts go to her knees).**


	3. Chapter 3

**I do not own Pokémon, nor do I own ghetsis or any of the characters EXCEPT for Rachel. I don't even own a car… I don't own the Hunger Games either. I don't own skylanders either or Mario or ****Avatar: the last airbender**** or Harry Potter**

**Rated K+ for mild *cough* violence, mentions of the Hunger Games' awesomeness oh and complete randomness.**

**Sorry for some OOCness too**

*cue dramatic music*

…

Shade of Grey

Chapter 3

"Fight with me my friend!" N called, sending out a purloin

"GGGGOOOOO INFERNO!" Rachel yelled, swinging her arm like a windmill, but Inferno's pokéball slipped from her grasp, fell on Rachel's foot and opened

"_WHO __**DARES**__ to disturb my slumber?! They shall pay for this act against me; THE __ALL MIGHTY, ALL POWERFUL, GREAT CONQUEROR OF GIRATINA; THE EVERLASTING INFERNO!"_ Inferno roared

"…" N looked between Rachel and Inferno "your Pokémon is a little egotistic" he said carefully

Purrloin, snivy, oshawott and tepig all snorted in perfect unison, as if they had planned it...

"_A little?_" Purrloin asked, looking at his trainer "_a little? try about the size of unova!_"

"Use scratch inferno!" Rachel called "I'll just take the first move, seeing how you aren't"

"You use scratch too Purrloin!"

Both Pokémon glared at each other, "_bring it small fry_" purloin hissed

Inferno growled and ran at the dark type, who smirked and stepped out of the way – lashing out at Inferno's back as the chimchar passed him.

"_You shall pay for that!_" Inferno snarled, wincing in pain

"Now! Use Blaze kick!" Rachel called, Inferno's right leg burst into flames and as the chimp Pokémon kicked Purrloin, N called

"Try to dodge my friend"

"_You are SO going down_!" Purrloin hissed in pain, he ran at Inferno, his claws gleaming

"Wait for it" Rachel told inferno, just as Purrloin was about to strike, Rachel called

"Brick break!"

N's eyes widen as Inferno's hands glowed white, Purrloin's eyes widen as he tried to stop, but was unable to. Purrloin skidded towards the now smirking chimchar

"_Oh crap_" the dark type said just before inferno hand's swung down and Ko'd him

"Purrloin is unable to battle! The victor is Inferno and the win goes to Rachel!" Cheren called

"Great job Inferno!" Rachel praised her starter "you did great out there!"

"_See! Mistress Rachel knows how awesome the all mighty, all powerful, great conqueror of Giratina; the everlasting Inferno is!_" Inferno said proudly, climbing up on Rachel's shoulder

"_I'm sorry N, I failed_" Purrloin said sadly

"Its okay, win some, lose some" N told him, he a louder voice, he addressed Rachel "I never expected Pokémon to say such things… no really, I didn't"

Rachel snorted "bet you never ran into an egotistic Pokémon before, did you?"

N shook his head "As long as Pokémon are confined in Pokéballs... Pokémon will never become perfect beings. It doesn't matter if you are right or not Rachel, I have to change the world for Pokémon, because they're my friends." He told her decisively before walking away, still holding Purrloin

"Why do you have to be so black and white N?" Rachel asked softly as he walked away

"Oooo" Hilbert said from behind her "looks like somebody has a crush!" Rachel whipped around and death glared him

"Rachel has a crush, Rachel has a crussshhh…" he trailed off and took a step back once he saw Rachel's murderous expression

"THAT'S IT!" Rachel roared, grabbing a katana from seemingly nowhere

"Remember Rachel, violence is frowned upon in most societies… oh holy Mew! She got the KATANA!" Hilbert cried and ran as fast as his legs could carry him towards route 2

"GET BACK HERE HILBERT! SO I CAN SLICE YOU INTO RIBBONS!" Rachel yelled, chasing him

"NEVER!" Hilbert yelled back, putting in an extra boost of speed

"He never knows when to shut up, does he?" Cheren asked Bianca

"It appears so…" she told him dryly

The two gave each other a look before racing after the two

OOO

Bianca and Cheren had been walking for about an hour before they caught up to Rachel and Hilbert, the four were in the same position as only Hilbert was in the tree and Cheren was beside Bianca

"déjà vu much?" Bianca called to Hilbert and Rachel Hilbert

"Hilbert, get your butt down here so I can kill you!" Rachel snarled up the tree, ignoring her blonde friend

"Never!" Hilbert called back down, climbing higher still

"Rachel, do you want to battle?" Bianca asked the brown haired girl, hoping she'd be distracted from murdering Hilbert

"No!" Rachel snapped "I want blood!" she glared harder at Hilbert, who was thanking his lucky stars that Rachel was still recovering from a broken wrist

"Hey look! There's Striaton city!" bianca pointed out the city, silently praying that rachel would get distracted and quickly

Rachel put up her Katana "I need to train so I can DESTROY the gym leaders. Cheerio!" she walked away, whistling rather cheerfully

"Thank you" Hilbert said, climbing down the tree, he looked after Rachel "I swear, she would have climbed up that tree herself…"

"Hilbert, you need to learn to shut up" Cheren told his friend blutly "someday, you'll push her too far. And someone will be getting hurt"

Hilbert looked at Cheren and Bianca "why do I get the feeling you two are holding an intervention?"

"Wow, we stink at this discreet stuff" Bianca said, raising an eyebrow at Cheren

"You're telling me" Cheren told her

Hilbert began to inch away "well, if you don't need me… BYE!" the brown haired boy ran towards the city.

"We really DO stink" Bianca exclaimed as they watched Hilbert run off.

"Well, shall we?" Cheren asked, offering his arm

Bianca grinned at her friend, and joined her arm "to the bookstore!" The two of them, a perfect picture of friendship made their way into the city.

OOO

"Whatd'ya mean you don't have any jasmine tea?" Rachel asked slamming her hands down on the counter "what kind of place doesn't have jasmine tea?! I'll just take my business off somewhere else" with a huff, Rachel walked out of the café, her hands in her pockets, muttering curses under her breath.

"Oh, hi Rachel!" Rachel turned around to see Cheren and Bianca, cheren's arms holding three bags

"Looks like you two had your semiannual book shopping spree" Rachel smiled at her friends

Bianca nodded and grinned "I got the collector's edition of Harry Potter AND I got the latest book of the 'Complete idiot's guide'. It was a great bargain!" she beamed at the memory

"'The only thing better than finding what you were looking for, is something you weren't'* " Rachel quoted

The two girls laughed

"Uh, Bianca, can we get to the Pokémon center? Our books are getting really heavy!" Cheren complained, adjusting the position of the bags

"Yeah, sure" Bianca told him "Good luck training Rachel!" the two walked to the Pokémon center and Rachel headed to the Dreamyard; humming a song to herself.

When she got to the site, a trainer saw her:

"Hello! My Purrloin's are the best!" the girl told Rachel confidently

Rachel raised an eyebrow, but pulled out a pokéball "we shall see, Inferno" she let said Pokémon out and the lass let out her purrloin

"_DO ALL UNOVANS HAVE PURRLOINS?!"_ Inferno cried out

"Let's dance" Rachel smirked at her opponent

**As I said before, I'm evil. Don't worry, Hilbert's safe… for now…**

**I'm starting highschool, so updates will take longer… I'm more motivated if I get reviews… so review!**

**As always, I will sic Rachel on any flames**

***= can you guess who said that? Here's a hint; read the disclaimer.**


	4. Chapter 4

**I do not own Pokémon, nor do I own ghetsis or any of the characters EXCEPT for Rachel. I don't even own a car or a DSi… I don't own the Hunger Games either. I don't own skylanders either or Mario or Harry Potter.**

**Rated K+ for mild *cough* violence, mentions of the Hunger Games' awesomeness oh and complete randomness.**

**Sorry for some OOCness too**

*cue dramatic music*

…

Shade of Grey

Chapter 4

Rachel stepped out of the Dreamyard, her dark hair hung limp on her back. She sighed and looked at the broken hair elastic.

"Always when I'm training" she muttered as she shoved the hair elastic into her pocket

"Hey Rachel!" the brunette looked up to see Hilbert

"Hey cuz" she said, brushing the stray strand of her hair out of her face

"Cuz?" Hilbert raised an eyebrow at her

"Boys" Rachel muttered under her breath "we're supposed to be posing as cousins, remember?"

Hilbert nodded "yeah, still what DID you…"

Rachel slapped her hand over his mouth "hush up! Not in public" she snarled under her breath, she removed her hand "I'm going to the gym and I plan to DESTROY the gym leaders!" she laughed manically, raising her hands in the air and Hilbert took a step back "And when I have the gym badge, I shall accept the glorious burden of conquering the Unova region! MWHAHAHAHA!"

"Your girlfriend is wacko buddy" a random trainer told Hilbert

"Nah, she's just really passionate… never mind, she's wacko… AND SHE'S NOT MY GIRLFRIEND!" Hilbert called out to the trainer, his face reddening

OOO

Cheren shoved his hands in his pockets and walked out of the trainer's school, muttering angrily "…complete waste of time! I could have been training!" Cheren kicked at the road and continuing looking down and walking, not a good combo because he ran into someone

"Ooofm! Which idiot ran into… oh, Hi Chery" Cheren looked up to see Rachel, her arms crossed and a scowl on her face

"Looking for the gym leader?" Cheren offered

"Yeah, that jerk wasn't at the gym when I was there! I faced his minions for NOTHING!" Rachel ranted

"Do you want to battle?" Cheren asked, interrupting Rachel's rant

"A battle, right now?" Rachel grinned "only if you want to lose!" she pulled out a great ball

"Not on the streets" Hilbert said, appearing at Rachel's elbow "I heard there are some battle fields behind the pokecenter…"

Oooo! We could do a tag team battle!" Bianca piped up from behind Cheren

"Yeah! You, Bianca and Chery dear vs. Hilbert the brain-mouth filter less one and I, the future conqueror of Unova; Rachel!" Rachel proclaimed pumping her fist into the air

Hilbert, Bianca and Cheren all looked at Rachel

"The brain-mouth filter less one?" Hilbert questioned

"Chery _dear_?" Cheren managed to get out, an expression of shock clearly imprinted on his face…

"I love you too" Rachel smiled at her best friend, she leaned in and staged whispered "but your socks STINK and it would never work out between us"

Bianca couldn't help it any longer- she burst into laughter "HAHAHAHA!"

Hilbert hand his hand over his mouth and was trying not to laugh, Cheren had this frozen expression of shock and horror, he mouth hanging open as he tried to form words, and Rachel was smiling a little angel.

Cheren's expression pushed Hilbert over the edge and the brown haired teen joined Bianca who was now rolling on the street, laughing.

If Rachel had looked up, she would have seen the wistful expression of her crush, before he walked off towards Nacrene city…

"Close your mouth Chery dear, or else you'll catch flies" Rachel smirked as Cheren just stared at her

"That wasn't funny!" Cheren protested after five minutes of just staring at Rachel in shock and then three minutes of turning many shades of red, he finally regained the ability to speak

"What can I say? My halo rests upon my horns" Rachel smirked at her friend

Bianca and Hilbert stood up, clutching their sides

"Too… funny… Rachel…" Hilbert wheezed out

Cheren gave Rachel an injured look, which Rachel scoffed at

"So, who beat the gym?" Hilbert asked

"I did" Bianca said, pulling out her badge case

"I didn't" Cheren said, shifting his weight

"Nor did I" Hilbert shrugged

"The jerk wasn't there" Rachel growled at the memory

"Well, I was there just ten minutes ago" Bianca shrugged, earning disbelieving looks from her friends

The four friends looked at each other before taking off.

OOO

Rachel walked up to the platform, her posture full of confidence, Hilbert and Cheren were still taking out the gym trainers, but Rachel had beaten them.

"Oh, um, hi" Cilan greeted her, "Cress, your challenger has arrived"

"What incredible luck! You get the battle the best of us!" Cress exclaimed, the blue haired teen clapped his hands and took a step forward

"HEY!" Chili and Cilan exclaimed in protest

Rachel smirked and brought out her Inferno's pokéball, Cress let out a Lillipup with a "battle for me Lillipup!"

"GGGGOOOOOOO INFERNO!" Rachel shouted, swinging her arm like a windmill and sending out her starter, inferno

"_Prepare to face my wrath pup!_" Inferno roared

"_We'll see_" Lillipup growled

"Start with ember Inferno!" Rachel called

Inferno spat multiple embers at Lillipup who managed to dodge most of them

"_ow!_" Lillipup conplained

"Use bite!" Cress called, Lillipup shook off the pain and ran at Inferno

"Brick break" Rachel yawned Inferno stepped out of Lillipup's way and slammed her right hand into the normal type's back as he passed her.

"Lillipup is no longer able to battle! Inferno wins! Gym Leader Cress, send out your next Pokémon!" Cilan called from the referee's spot

"Return Lillipup, you did a good job. Cool down the heat Panpour!" Cress sent out his elemental monkey

"Inferno, return" Rachel returned her starter to her pokéball before pulling out a great ball

"Venus! Show your thorns!" Rachel called, throwing the great ball into the air; the Pokémon came out happily dancing

"Roselia!" the Pokémon cried happily, dancing around

"Panpour, start with work up!"

"Growth"

"_Yeah, yeah, yeah!"_ Cress' Panpour said, stretching up and his body glowed with a red aura

Rachel's Roselia stopped dancing and just stood there, her body srew a tiny bit and she was surrounded by a green aura "_pretty green makes me glow! Makes me pretty_" Roselia giggled

"Fury swipes!"

"Seed bomb!"

The glowing stopped and before Panpour started running at Roselia; the grass type had sent multiple seeds at Panpour that exploded upon contact.

"_OUCH!_" Panpour screeched as he danced around, trying to avoid the bombs.

"_Now everybody dancing_" Roselia giggled, stopping the attack and spinning around "_whee_"

Behind her, Panpour groaned "_sorry Cress, I'm not fighting her_" the monkey collapsed, Ko'd

"Panpour is no longer able to battle! The winner is Roselia and the Victory goes to Rachel!" Cilan called, he, of course, knew what Pokémon Roselia was (he was rather fond of them too, not that he'd ever admit that)

"_Dancing petals, dancing leaves! Pretty colors, all same to me!"_ Roselia giggled around, she stopped spinning and skipped over to Rachel

"Great job Venus" Rachel smiled at her Pokémon and returned her to her pokéball as Cheren burst through the door "Finally" he exclaimed

"Please tell me that you didn't choose the fire type" Cress said

"No, I chose Oshawott… Rachel? What are you doing here?" Cheren directed his question at the brown haired girl

"Just won my gym badge" Rachel shrugged and grinned at Cheren "chery dear, you have got to stop asking those kinds of questions"

"Are you two an item?" Chili asked

"WE'RE NOT A COUPLE!" the sheer volume of both Rachel's and Cheren's outburst had all three gym leaders with their hands clamped over their ears.

"I wouldn't hook up with him even if here were the last _male_ in the universe" Rachel said, crossing her arms

"ditto here" Cheren nodded sagely "I'd sooner volunteer as a tribute for the Hunger Games then even think about dating her…"

"Well, here's your gym badge and TM, its work up…" Cilan gave Rachel the stuff, which Rachel shoved her bag

"Yeah thanks, if you don't mind – I have a lot of stuff to do" Rachel walked off, leaving Cheren and the three gym leaders.

Rachel walked out of the gym to be greeted by Bianca, who brighten at the sight of her friend

"Oh! Hi Rachel! Professor Juniper called me, she wants us to talk to her friend, Professor Fennel, I met her before, and she's cool. So come on!" Bianca said, dragging Rachel towards one of the nearest buildings.

**Alright! Rachel's second Pokémon is revealed and she has her gym badge! So, what did Rachel do that she and Hilbert had to be posing as cousins? That will be reveal in later chapters… so stay tuned cuz you'll never know when I'm gonna reveal it. **

**next chappie has TP encounters... and Rachel has a new nickname for the grunts!**

**As always, please review and Rachel will stomp on any flames!**


	5. Chapter 5

**I do not own Pokémon, nor do I own ghetsis or any of the characters EXCEPT for Rachel. I don't even own a car or a DSi… I don't own the Hunger Games either. I don't own skylanders either or Mario or Harry Potter.**

**Rated K+ for mild *cough* violence, mentions of the Hunger Games' awesomeness oh and complete randomness.**

**Sorry for some OOCness too**

Just before you read this chapter and all its randomness, I'd like to give a big shout out to Denizen Of Madness for the advice! Thank you, it really helped me. *no sarcasm*

*cue dramatic music*

…

Shade of Grey

Chapter 5

Sometimes Rachel seriously questioned why she was friends with Bianca, not that she was complaining, Bianca was a great friend… but the things Bianca would drag Rachel to for 'bonding time'. This was one of those times, the brown haired girl sighed as she reorganized her bag… for the 50th time in the past hour.

She glanced up to see Bianca showing one of her Pokémon to Prof. Fennel and groaned "Aren't you done yet?" Rachel asked

"No" Bianca and Fennel said at the same time

Rachel heaved a sigh and sat back in the chair, suddenly remembering something; Rachel dug in her bag again and pulled out a deck of cards. She grinned as she looked at her weapon for combatting boredom.

It was ten games of clock solitaire, two games of solitaire and five card buildings later when Bianca said the words that Rachel had been longing to hear;

"Well, it was great catching up Prof. Fennel, but we'd better leave now."

"YES! YES! YES!" Rachel cheered, jumping up and pumping her fist into the air, of course, in doing so, she knocked down her card tower.

Bianca only shook her head "clean up Rachel"

Rachel nodded and quickly scooped up all her playing card, and dumped them in her bag. "Let's go!"

"Before you go, I'd like to ask you a favor, too! There is a place called the Dreamyard on the outskirts of Striaton City. I'd like some of the Dream Mist that a Pokémon there called Munna gives off. With that, I'll be able to use Game Sync to collect save files of various Trainers!" Fennel called after them

"Okay!" Bianca agreed "anything for you Fennel"

As they were leaving, Rachel turned to Bianca "the things you get me into" she said

"It'll be fun" Bianca grinned "I mean, what's the worst that happen?"

OOO

"Fun you said" Rachel deadpanned, she faced her blonde friend "I wasn't in to watch absolutely nothing." She squinted at the sky "now, you asked THE question, and something so unspeakably horrible hasn't happened yet, I'm getting worried."

The two girls were waiting in the Dreamyard for a Munna to appear and were getting rather bored rather quickly…

"Sooo… now what?" Rachel asked, she laid down on her stomach beside Bianca, her chin resting on her hands

"We keep watching" Bianca said simply

"But what if we don't see any? What if they know we're looking for them and hid away and are laughing at us!" Rachel exclaimed

Bianca lightly backhanded her friend "you're overthinking it. Stop being so paranoid Rachel!"

Then to their surprise, a Munna appeared "target spotted!" Rachel said, scrambling to get up, Bianca rolled her eyes and helped her friend up. The two girls approached the Munna but then two team Plasma grunts appeared

"We found you, Munna!" A grunt said they went on each side of the Munna "Come on! Make some dream mist!"

"_No!_" Munna cried, looking around as if to see an escape…

"Hey! Who are you?" Bianca called to the grunts (who I'll call Jack and Jill to make it easier to understand)

"You talking' to us?! We're Team Plasma; we fight day and night to liberate Pokémon from foolish humans!" the grunt on the right said of Munna, Jill said

"If you would give it to us willingly, we'll just take it by force!" the other grunt, jack said, he kicked the psychic type

"HEY!" Rachel called out to them angrily, her hand clutched Inferno's pokéball tightly "what in Arceus' name do you think you're doing?!"

"What are we doing?" Jill scoffed "Munna and their evolution, Musharna produce a mysterious vapor called dream mist. Dream mist shows people's dreams; we're going to use that to make people want to release their Pokémon! We'll show them dreams to manipulate their hearts"

Jack kicked the Munna again "come on! Spit out that dream mist!"

"You're kicking a Pokémon to make it give off Dream Mist?" Bianca was horrified "that doesn't make any sense at all!"

"Stop that!" Rachel growled "You'd better start running for those hills, because Rachel DiAblo is back!" she sent out Inferno

"We'll see" Jack's tone matched Rachel's, he set out a Patrat

"If you mess with fire, prepare to get BURNED! GO INFERNO!" Rachel yelled, sending out her starter

"_FIRE! MOWR FIRE!"_ Inferno let out a battle cry, picking up on Rachel's foul mood.

"Bite!"

"Finish this fast, brick break!"

The two Pokémon ran at each other, the Patrat rushed forward as Inferno's right hand swung to meet him. At the last second, the Patrat changed targets and bit Inferno's hand

"_Ow!"_ Inferno yelped, she glared at the Patrat, her left hand glowing and she swung her hand and hit the Patrat, who didn't let go in time.

"_Crap_" Patrat said as he passed out

Jack returned his Pokémon and glared at Rachel, of course Rachel wasn't intimated, she was amused at his rather pathetic attempts to intimate her

Rachel glared her patented Death Glare at him who succumbed to its awesomely scary power within seconds

"Re-re-r-e-r-return" the grunt returned the Patrat shakily and for lack of a better word, scurried behind Jill

Bianca looked at Rachel, half confused, half in awe. She had never seen this side of Rachel before, and truth be told, Bianca was sure she never wanted to see that side ever again. Sure she had threatened Hilbert and Cheren before (Bianca would never say it to their faces, but it WAS pretty funny to see them cower before Rachel in fear) in jest… or was it? Bianca was unsure and she didn't like not knowing the facts.

"I'll avenge you" Jill said, stepping forward "use scratch Purrloin!"

The Purrloin came out so fast, that Inferno didn't even have time to dodge.

"_You shall PAY for that fleabag!_" Inferno snarled

"_You are going down monkey girl_" Purrloin hissed back

"Ember!" Rachel called, her tone hard as steel

Inferno spat small embers at the Purrloin who somehow managed to dodge them all

"Growl!" Jill told the dark type

"Get in close" Rachel said calmly, a glint appearing in her eyes

Purrloin hissed at Inferno who didn't seem too bothered as she made her way over to the dark type

"Scratch!"

"Brick break!"

Jill and Rachel called at the same time; Purrloin's claws appeared as she slashed Inferno. Inferno's left hand hit Purrloin's side.

"_I win_" Inferno said rather smugly as Purrloin slipped into unconsciousness

"_Curse you_" she mumbled

Jill silently returned her Pokémon "Team Plasma will liberate Pokémon from people like you" she said

Jack kicked the Munna again "come on! Make that Dream Mist!"

"What are you two doing goofing off?" a cold voice asked, all four of them turned to see Ghetsis, his face cold and unmoving as he glared at them

"We, team Plasma shall separate Pokémon from foolish people" the same voice said, the four of the turned around to see another Ghetsis

The Ghetsis disappeared, but then his voice said "if you cannot fulfill your duties…" they turned again to see him, in front of them, looking a bit angry, but mostly just cold

Jack started to panic "t-this isn't Ghetsis when he is gather followers or when he is trying to control people by tricking them with speeches! This is Ghetsis when a plan failed and he is about to issue punishment!"

Jill was close to panicking now too "At any rate, we better hurry up and say sorry and pray he forgives us!" the two paled and ran off somewhere. Just after they left, Ghetsis disappeared and a Musharna came out from behind a wall

"_Are you okay little one_?" the Pokémon asked its previous evolution, floating over to the Munna

"That was weird" Bianca struggled to find the right words

"Now doesn't he seem like such a nice boss" Rachel said sarcastically, referring to Ghetsis, she returned inferno and put the pokéball into her bag.

"Oh! Hey! There you two are… is that Musharna?" Prof Fennel asked, coming up behind them

The Munna and Musharna looked at her and quickly floated away, Prof Fennel looked concerned "I don't look THAT bad, do I?"

Bianca stifled a giggle, and Rachel groaned

"Dream Mist!" Fennel all but shirked, she grabbed a random bottle from her lab coat, ran over to the pinkish mist that was left from the Munna "come over to my place, won't cha?" she called over her shoulder to the two girls "I'll be right there and i have something I want to give you two!"

Rachel and Bianca shared a look, but made their way out of the Dreamyard.

"You know, they still didn't answer my question" was Rachel's last comment as they left.

OOO

"Where are they?" Hilbert muttered, he looked out the window "it's getting dark; Bianca said that they'll be back by sunset…"

"Then why are you worrying?" Cheren asked, interrupting his friend as the dark haired teen looked at Hilbert from over his book

"Yeah Hilbert, why ARE you worrying?" an all too familiar voice asked

"Rachel!" Hilbert called, he looked at her "what, in Victini's name did you do this afternoon?" Rachel's outfit was caked with mud, and she had dried mud caked over her face, her arms, her legs and her hair had a nice assortment of twigs stuck in it

She shrugged "turns out, it rained yesterday." She walked passed them "I have a date with the shower, see ya later!"

"Bianca!" Hilbert called out in relief, he took in her appearance "wha…"

Bianca held up her hand "don't ask" she headed off in the same direction as Rachel, she suddenly turned around "the C-gear, wasn't worth it" she said

**And done! I wanted to put in the other TP encounter, but I'll save that for next chappie. So I lied; Rachel's nickname for the grunts will be revealed later, next chapter soonest.**

**And what did Rachel mean by "…Rachel DiAblo is back!" I might publish a one-shot with Rachel moving to Unova; but who knows. I love reviews.**


	6. Chapter 6

**I do not own Pokémon, nor do I own ghetsis or any of the characters EXCEPT for Rachel. I don't even own a car or a DSi… I don't own the Hunger Games either. I don't own skylanders either or Mario or Harry Potter.**

**Rated K+ for mild *cough* violence, mentions of the Hunger Games' awesomeness oh and complete randomness.**

**Sorry for some OOCness too**

_Flashback, she had said this a thousand times before…_

"_Pokémon speaking_" Snivy said

"People speaking" Rachel said

*cue dramatic music*

…

Shade of Grey

Chapter 6

"Morning Hilbert" Rachel said, she walked out of the pokecenter bathroom, her hair wet from her morning shower

"Rachel" Hilbert nodded in greeting "now are you going to tell me about you-know-what?"

Rachel's face hardened "no, I changed my mind!" she said coldly, she glared at Hilbert "and you bugging me isn't going help your cause!" she bundled up her towel "now get out!" she yelled, throwing to towel at Hilbert who ran out of the room. Once the door closed, Rachel sank to her knees; she took out of a picture of an Infernape, a Garchomp, a Roserade, a Gyarados, a Staraptor, a Luxray and a much younger Rachel.

"I promised and I failed" she whispered as small tears leaked out of her eyes.

OOO

"Hey Hilbert, have you seen Rachel?" Bianca asked the brown haired teen as he walked into the pokecenter cafeteria

"Yeah, she'll be down in a while" Hilbert told them, he sat down in the booth, across from Cheren and beside Bianca "now, what's for breakfast?"

"Not much, the usual" Cheren shrugged, he stabbed his pancake with his fork moodily

"You lost against what's-his-face?" Hilbert asked

"If you mean the gym leader, what's-his-face, then no." Cheren told him "it's just…" he threw his fork down on the plate "that darn bookstore…"

"He's more temperamental about his books then Rachel at her time of month" Hilbert told Bianca

Bianca snorted "don't say THAT in front of her, you might be permanently silenced."

"Say what?" Rachel asked, sliding into the booth beside Cheren, Bianca noted that her eyes were a little red as if she had been crying.

"Nothing! Nothing! Nothing at all!" Hilbert told her hastily

"So it wasn't about my time of month?" Rachel asked innocently

Unfortunately for him, Hilbert's expression gave him away

"Hilbert!" Rachel snarled "what have I told you about joking on that SUBJECT?!"

Hilbert paled and instead of answering, he ran as fast as his legs could carry him

"GET BACK HERE SO I CAN MAKE HILBERTDROP SOUP* OUTTA YOU!" Rachel took after him

Bianca and Cheren gave each other a look "we'd better go save Hilbert's sorry butt" Bianca said, she got up and picked up both of her friend's bags and left the cafeteria.

OOO

"Definitely Déjà vu" Bianca told Cheren as they saw Rachel, glaring up a tree, Katana on hand.

"Completely" Cheren agreed, he took off his glasses and rubbed the lenses using his shirt before replacing them on his face.

"Rachel, is there any good reasons why you are waiting to murder Hilbert?" Bianca asked, staying a good distance away

Rachel blinked "murder? Nah, that was _sooooo_ yesterday, I'm going to seriously maim him, but not kill."

From up in the tree, Hilbert gave a relived sighed, but then tensed up at a thought. Worried, he called down to Bianca and Cheren "I don't know if I should be glad that I might live, or scared of the pain Rachel would willingly inflict upon me."

"Be glad" Rachel called up "it's a whole lot easier if you don't resist"

"Heck no! I'm going to resist!" Hilbert called back down, tightening his grip on the tree

Rachel glared up the tree, but put away her Kanata away and her friends all sighed in relief "I'm not going to harm you Hilberty" she said, Hilbert tensed at the nickname and Rachel smirked "at least, not yet…"

"Real reassuring Rachel" Hilbert called back down to her

"Is that sarcasm I hear?" Rachel shook her head in mock shame "oh Hilbert, you shame moi!" she looked up and placed a hand over her heart "with your wondrously _convincing_ attempts my dear lad!" she bowed to a nonexistent audience

Hilbert, Cheren and Bianca all looked at Rachel

"Did that just happen?" Bianca asked Hilbert, who climbed down the tree

"Rachel" Cheren started, taking a step towards the brown haired girl "Rachel, you need to take anger management because you can't threaten everyone who looks at you sideways with your Kanata. You're going to eventually threaten the wrong person and we won't be able to help you."

"And Hilbert, you have to stop saying stupid stuff. Again, we won't always be around to get you out of those sticky situations." Bianca said "we get want to help you two."

"I think they're holding an intervention." Rachel said, shrugging

Hilbert and Rachel looked at each other in panic "OH HOLY MEW! THEY'RE HOLDING AN INTERVENTION! RUN!" the two did the only thing any sensible person would do – run in circles like headless chickens

"It's the end of the world!" Hilbert yelled, running in circles, he fell to his knees, raised his arms above his head and cried in a loud voice "I'M TOO YOUNG TO DIE!"

"WHAT DID I DO YOU UNIVERSE?!" Rachel cried, kneeling in a similarly position as Hilbert

"You exist" was Hilbert's snarky comment

"Why you…" Rachel snarled at Hilbert and the two began to fight. (Think in cartoons when people are fighting and there's a dust cloud and the only thing you can see is the occasional limb, yeah, that was happening)

Bianca looked at Cheren "those two were made for each other…"

OOO

Rachel kicked a pebble into the tall grass as she walked along route 3; the daycare people had been nice… Rachel sighed as a memory resurfaced;

_A much younger Rachel smiled once again at the day care lady "Thanks a ton, once again for watching over Inferno – she can be a pain if she doesn't know you"_

"_She was no problem dearie" the day care lady smiled at the 12 year old "oh!" the day care lady reached under the desk and pulled out an egg "Inferno was found holding this. Neither my husband or I know where it came from, do you want it?" she looked questioningly at the tween_

"_Of course!" Rachel exclaimed, accepting the egg "wow" she smiled at Inferno's pokéball before putting it in her bag along with the egg_

"_Have a good day!" the day care lady called after Rachel as she ran out the door_

Rachel was snapped to reality by getting pushed to aside which caused her to lose her balance and fall on the ground by two Team Plasma grunts

"Stop!" Cheren called after them, he ran up to Rachel and huffed, slightly out of breath

"Oh for Arceus' sake, couldn't you have tried to run?" Bianca snapped to Cheren coming up behind him and a young girl, about 8 trailing her. Bianca put her hands on her hips and glared at the dark haired teen

"Miss, my Pokémon" the girl said timidly to Bianca

"It's okay Tia; Cheren will get them back, WON'T HE?" Bianca said, looking pointedly at Cheren

"The team plasma goons?" Rachel questioned, she picked herself up and dusted herself off "yeah, they went that way" Rachel pointed towards a cave

"We'd better get going" Cheren muttered to her, Rachel looked in confusion at her friend

"What? Who said I'd go with you?" Rachel asked

"Well, uh, I'd assumed, and well" Cheren said rather awkwardly

"You have to stop assuming Chery dear" Cheren glared at the brown haired girl "I would miss this for the world!"

Rachel began to skip towards the cave and Cheren followed her

"Oof!" Rachel had stopped and Cheren, not really paying attention had smacked right into her. The glasses wearing teen sunk to the ground and laid on the dirt path "what'dya do that for Rachel?"

"Are you Pokémon in good shape?" Rachel asked, not taking her eyes off the cave

"Uh, yeah?"

"Good, then…" Rachel broke into a grin, grabbed Cheren's wrist and ran into the cave "CHARGEEEEE!"

OOO

"Well, Well, Well, if it isn't the Toilet Paper Lackeys" Rachel sneered from in front of the entrance, which caused all three Team Plasma grunts, or now dubbed by Rachel; Toilet paper lackeys turn to face her

Cheren face palmed "Really Rachel? Really? Toilet paper lackeys?"

Rachel nodded "Uh-huh!"

"We're Team Plasma grunts" Jack yelled

"Same thing!" Rachel yelled back

Jill and the other male grunt (we'll call him Bob) hide their laughter behind their hands

"Look kid, beat it" Bob said

"Nope! Not until you give us back that Pokémon you stole!" Rachel called, her voice echoing

"That child cannot use the Pokémon to its full potential" Jack said, him and Jill took a step towards the group "isn't that sad? And it's the same thing for your Pokémon too, so hand them over!"

"Better yet" Jill said, pulling out a pokéball "we'll just take them!"

"I'll take her" Rachel said, she brought out a pokéball "Go Stormer!" she sent out a blitzle

"Go Patrat!" Jill sent out Patrat

"Use charge Stormer!" Rachel called; Stormer's coat began to almost sizzle with static electricity

"Bite!" Jill called

Patrat ran up to Stormer and bite the Electrified Pokémon

"Now shockwave!" Rachel commanded

Before Patrat could let go, Stormer had released the electricity, hitting Patrat close range

"Finish with quick attack!" Rachel grinned at Jill as Stormer slammed into the scouting Pokémon

The Patrat hit the floor some ways away from Jill, out cold

"Return" Jill returned her Patrat and took a step back "I can't believe I lost to a kid!" she spat

"My turn" Bob replaced Jill "there's two of us and two of you. Let's see if you can handle our prowess!"

They each sent out a Patrat

"Let's do this Chery" Rachel said as Cheren sent out Oshawott

"Quick question" Cheren said "why in Victini's name are Pokémon robbers action so self-righteous?"

Rachel shrugged

"Use bite!" Jack said, the two Patrats ran to the Pokémon

"Meet em with quick attack!" Rachel called

"Use watergun oshawott" Cheren called

"_I'll do my best Mistress!"_ Stormer said cheerfully, he hit the two Patrats and Oshawott sent Bob's Patrat flying

"…" Oshawott glared at his two foes

"Use bide" Bob and Jack called in unison

"Quick Cheren! Have Oshawott use watergun on the ground surrounding the Patrats!" Rachel told Cheren

"You got that?" Cheren called to Oshawott, who simply nodded and did as Rachel asked

"Now Stormer, release your strongest Shockwave at the water, ok?" Rachel asked

"_I'll do my best mistress!_" Stormer said, he glared at the water and sent well, a shockwave at the water. The two Patrat both cried in pain

"_OW!" _Jack's Patrat yelped

"Now finish the job with quick attack!" Stormer ran at the Patrat, the electrified water not bothering him.

The sheer impact sent both Patrats flying and hit the wall, knocking them out.

"Return Patrat" both Jack and Bob returned their Pokémon

"I can't believe we did as bad as Jill" Bob said

"I HEARD THAT!" Jill yelled angrily

"We will take Pokémon from foolish trainers like you" Jack said "we WILL liberate the Pokémon"

"What reason could they possibly have to justify stealing Pokémon" Cheren shook his head

"From Pokémon liberation" all the grunts said at the same time

Jill tossed a heal ball at Cheren's feet "we'll give you the Pokémon back, but remember, every minute a Pokémon is spending with a human the more it suffers" with that said, the three grunts left

"That's a load of hogwash" Cheren scoffed "trainers bring out their Pokémon's strengths. I'll return the Pokémon to Bianca and Tia now, see ya." Cheren picked up the pokéball and walked out of the cave.

"Why is Unova so black and white?" Rachel asked softly, after Cheren left

**Annnndddd done (for now), wow, one of my longest chapter yet. So Rachel has 3 Pokémon now and some of her past is revealed. Jack and Jill make another appearance in all their Toilet paper lackey glory. Bianca and Cheren attempt yet again at an intervention, will they ever not fail? Maybe not…**

**As always, please review and Rachel is a ready for flame stompin'!**

***= Hilbertdrop soup, like eggdrop soup. anyone get it?**


	7. Chapter 7

**I do not own Pokémon, nor do I own ghetsis or any of the characters EXCEPT for Rachel. I don't even own a car or a DSi… I don't own the Hunger Games either. I don't own skylanders either or Mario or Harry Potter.**

**Rated K+ for mild *cough* violence, mentions of the Hunger Games' awesomeness oh and complete randomness.**

**Sorry for some OOCness too**

_Flashback, she had said this a thousand times before…_

"_Pokémon speaking_" Snivy said

"People speaking" Rachel said

'I am a little voice in your head'/'SHUT UP!' mind arguing

*cue dramatic music*

…

Shade of Grey

Chapter 7

"Where's Hilbert?" Cheren asked, he had successfully delivered the Pokémon back to Tia, who thanked him before running off

"I don't know Cheren" Bianca shrugged, she pulled out her townsmap and began to study it

"Have you noticed Rachel seems a little more, distracted then usual?" Cheren asked

The blonde haired teen looked up "yeah, I noticed too. Ever since we started, she seems a little more withdrawn and as you put it, distracted."

"Do you think we should ask her about it?" Cheren questioned, looking at his childhood friend

"Are you kidding?! Did you see her reaction last time?" The two just stood in silence for a moment

"Do you think something happened before she came to Unova?" Cheren broke the silence "she never mentioned where she came from, but I suspect Sinnoh because of Inferno"

"The only way you'll know is if you ask me" Rachel interrupted her friends' 'discussion'

Bianca looked abashed

"Am I right?" Cheren asked

Rachel scowled at the dark haired teen "that's for me to know and for you to never find out" she said airily,

"Hey, we never did have that tag-team battle" Hilbert said, appearing at Rachel's elbow "You two vs. me and ray…"

"You're trending dangerous waters Black" Rachel said, growling at the teen. It wasn't that she didn't like the nickname Ray-ray; it was just that _they_ used it. Rachel knew it was disrespectful, but that didn't stop her from getting rid of nearly everything that reminded her of her failure to everyone.

'Luckily Cynthia was there' she thought bitterly 'everyone knows what she did and they all forgot about little ole me whose failure nearly landed all of…' Rachel mentally shook her head 'no, I will not dwell on it. Get a grip on yourself Rachel DiAblo! You cannot be weak anymore, weakness leads to failure and you will NOT fail anymore.'

"HILDA WHITE!" Cheren yelled, his voice snapping Rachel out of her thoughts

"My name is NOT Hilda!" Rachel roared, Bianca, Cheren and Hilbert blinked at her and Rachel blushed

"It's Rachel, I dropped Hilda when I was five" Rachel quickly added, but Cheren, Bianca and Hilbert looked like they didn't believe her

'Great Rachel, there goes your mouth - again. If had learn to kept it shut like your parent's wanted you to, you wouldn't be in this mess' the tiny voice in her head criticized her 'you would be happy with all your friends. But noooo, you had to open your big mouth and now look, all your friends abandoned you and you got stuck with this lot.'

"If you don't mind, I have to get to Nacrene city" Rachel turned heels and began to walk down route 3, towards Nacrene city.

The group watched Rachel storm off

"What's her problem?" Cheren asked as Rachel disappeared from view

"I have no idea Chery dear" Bianca said, using Rachel's nickname for the dark haired teen, said teen only scowled

The three teens stood there, on the dirt path, on route 3. With the pidoves singing what was later translated as a love ballad.

"I don't think confronting her about it will help" Bianca said slowly "I think the best thing we can do is to wait; she might tell us in her own time, when she's ready."

"Yeah, to our grave markers" Cheren scoffed "and she has one foot in the grave and is overwhelmed with guilt"

"Yeah right, she never feels guilt. I mean, I nearly got expelled because of her!" Hilbert added "I could have died!"

Bianca backhanded Hilbert lightly "stop being a drama queen Hilbert, or should I say, Hilberta?"

Cheren chuckled at Hilbert's expression, which was remarkably similar to his own [cheren's] in chap 4.

"Close your mouth, or else you'll catch flies" Bianca smirked at the shocked brown haired teen

"Why don't you take a picture – it'll last longer!" Hilbert snapped to Cheren who was having a very hard time controlling his laughter

OOO

Nacrene city wasn't flashy or anything, but Rachel had to admit it had charm to it. With the warehouses brightly decorated, and the pokecenter bight as ever, Rachel was sure this town appealed to some people, but not to her

'Allison would have loved this place' Rachel thought with a twinge of regret as she walked along the cobblestone road towards the pokecenter while taking in the sight.

The brunette continued her journey not sparing a glance to the railroad tracks, just past a fence.

"_All aboard!" the conductor called, an eleven year old Rachel climbed on and sat next to a girl her age_

"_Hello!" the girl said brightly "I'm Allison Weedlock!"_

"_Rachel DiAblo" Rachel said_

_Allison grinned at Rachel "You going to Kanto? I just love Kanto, so bright and colorful; did you know every town in Kanto, except pallet town is named after a color?"_

"_Er, no?" Rachel said_

_Allison nodded and practically bounced in her seat "Uh-huh!" she blushed "sorry" she said sheepishly "I get really excited when it comes to colors" she said_

"_No kidding" Rachel muttered_

_Allison laughed "I can see this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship!"_

'A friendship that would get her killed' Rachel thought bitterly as she walked through the pokecenter doors, the teen walked up to Nurse Joy, ignoring the chaos around her as different trainers came in and out

"Hello" Nurse Joy said, a little breathless, she wiped her hand across her brow "do you need your Pokémon healed? A room key? Both?"

"Both please" Rachel said, handing the pink haired nurse her three pokéballs, Nurse joy nodded and took the three pokéballs

"Name please?" she requested

"Rachel White" Rachel said, Nurse joy nodded once more, wrote her name in a binder and handed a key with 99 marked on a keychain to the teen

"I'll call for you, once your Pokémon are done healing" Rachel murmured thanks before walking over to the couch. She sat down next to a man

"Hey kid, want to buy a watch?" he asked

Rachel looked at the man like he was crazy "uh, no thanks" she said carefully

The man burst out laughing "HAHAHA! You should have seen the look on your face!" he said, wiping a tear from his eye "priceless, I'm an artist around these parts and we're having an art sale, if you have any works, feel free to bring them and maybe someone will buy them." He shrugged and got up, walking over to another trainer

"_Allison, why did you drag me to this art convention again?" Rachel asked as her hyperactive friend dragged her to a booth_

"_Because, daddy wouldn't let me go if I didn't" Allison cut herself off and grinned at Rachel, her eyes full of mischief "torture someone. So quit your grouching Ray-Ray! I'll buy you lunch!"_

"_Ah Allie, you know my Achilles' heel!" Rachel gasped her free hand over her heart and said dramatically "now ye SHALL be the cause of thine servant's downfall. O by the legends, what hast I done? Tell me I pray!"_

"_You told me" Allison said simply and the two girls laughed_

"Hey Rachel!" Rachel's memory was interrupted by her sworn friemy – Hilbert. The brown haired teen walked over to Rachel "I see you made in one piece, where's Cheren and Bianca?"

Rachel shrugged "I have no idea" she stood up and faced him as nurse Joy's voice came over the intercom

"Rachel White, Rachel White. Your Pokémon are healed." Rachel walked past Hilbert and over to the desk "Thank you" Rachel said gratefully as Nurse Joy handed the three pokéballs to her

"No problem, come back soon!" Nurse Joy called cheerfully as Rachel left the center

"Hey! Rachel! Where are you going?!" Hilbert sprinted after her as Rachel walked along the peaceful streets of Nacrene.

"Do you want to train with me?" Hilbert asked, Rachel shrugged

"There's a little café, do you want to grab lunch?" Rachel shrugged again and shoved her hands in her short's pockets

"We could go to the museum?"

Rachel stopped in her tracks in front of said museum "I want to train, by myself" she added before Hilbert could say anything

Hilbert watched Rachel walk towards route four, her head titled downwards, looking at the pavement.

"What's her problem?" he muttered under his breath

Rachel continued walking, craving the solitude of the Pinwheel forest. She could feel the grazes of the other trainers as she passed. Not paying attention to where she was going until she crashed into someone, the impact unbalanced her and she was about to fall when a firm, but gentle hand grabbed her right arm and steadied her.

"Thanks" Rachel muttered, she looked up to see N looking down at her "hi N" she said

"What are you doing Rachel?" N asked, his quiet voice was more piercing then Bianca's father's shouting.

"I needed to get away" Rachel said, looking back down at her shoes "I can't face it, but I have to." She voice softened and she began to speak quicker "I need to be strong for Inferno and Venus, but I can't it's too hard." N's grip loosened on her arm and Rachel sunk to the ground "Everyone is pressuring me and I can't do it! They expect so much out of me N! I can't handle things anymore!" it was at that point N, crouched down beside her "Why do they have to expect so much? Why? All I want to be is normal! I want my old friends back; I just want my parents…" Rachel gave a hollow laugh "Life is cruel N. It takes what it wants and leaves you to rot in the ground."

N only looked at Rachel, he was confused; where was the confident girl he had met in Accumula town? In her place was a crying girl who seemed to have gotten in over her head

'_A lot of pain can be seen in her eyes'_ Purrloin hissed, he licked his left paw, for a few seconds N thought the feline had given Rachel a pitying glance '_Pain, no human or Pokémon should go through.'_ He looked thoughtful '_she _did_ have a convincing front in Accumula town. Or the news is recent._'

'_Get away from Mistress!_' N hadn't even noticed Inferno coming out of her pokéball, and the fire type looked simply furious '_I. Said. Get. Away!' _ The Chimchar growled and glared at the two, baring her teeth

N got up "I'll leave her in your hands" he told Inferno, who only nodded.

As N and Purrloin walked towards Nacrene city, he looked back to Rachel who was hugging Inferno as if she were her lifeline. Inside, he wished that HE was the one comforting Rachel

'Where'd THAT thought come from?' he wondered as he continued walking

**ANND DONE! When I began to write to this chapter, I didn't expect to put N in it, but I let things go their course and I had a bit of Ferriswheelshipping (I couldn't resist). I'm thinking about pairing Cheren/Bianca (I forgot what that's called). Rachel's character is coming along nicely; uses insanity to cover her sadness and the fact she feels overwhelmed. Of course when I throw in Rachel's past (but it won't be until dragonspiral tower) everything will become clear.**

**Please review and all flames will be stamped upon by Rachel.**


	8. Chapter 8

**I do not own Pokémon, nor do I own ghetsis or any of the characters EXCEPT for Rachel. I don't even own a car or a DSi… I don't own the Hunger Games either. I don't own skylanders either or Mario or Harry Potter.**

**Rated K+ for mild *cough* violence, mentions of the Hunger Games' awesomeness oh and complete randomness.**

**Sorry for some OOCness too**

**To TheOneMagic,**

**I don't know who I'm going to pair Hilbert up with, I have an idea but I won't reveal it yet and I don't know if I'll do it.**

_Flashback, she had said this a thousand times before…_

"_Pokémon speaking_" Snivy said

"People speaking" Rachel said

'I am a little voice in your head'/'SHUT UP!' mind arguing

*cue dramatic music*

…

Shade of Grey

Chapter 8

Rachel yawned tiredly as she watched her Pokémon battle some of the wild Pokémon

"Try an ember Inferno" Rachel called, as she leaned against the tree, the Chimchar nodded and spat some embers at the Timburr who blocked it with his log

"Now! Let's try again! Flame wheel!" Rachel commanded, Inferno nodded and jumped into the air. The Chimchar cloaked herself in flames as she somersaulted onto the Timburr

"Great job Inferno!" Rachel cheered "You're really mastering Flame Wheel!"

"_Of course I am, what did you expect from __THE ALL MIGHTY, ALL POWERFUL, GREAT CONQUEROR OF GIRATINA; THE EVERLASTING INFERNO!_" Inferno declared and the Timburr face palmed

"_Egotistic little shrimp_" the Timburr muttered, Inferno narrowed her eyes at him

"_Take that back Woody!_" Inferno growled

"Well, it's true" Rachel shrugged; she stood up and looked over at the two Pokémon to see Timburr's rather smug expression and Inferno's expression of pure disbelief "what?" she asked them, confused

"_How COULD you betray me like that?"_ Inferno cried out, (fake) tears streaming down her face. Inferno flung herself on Rachel shoes and continued to (fake) cry "_I thought you my friend! WHY DID YOU HAVE TO BETRAY ME MISTRESS! WHY?!"_

Rachel looked at the Timburr, who shrugged "This is…" Rachel struggled for a moment to find the right word "awkward"

"_Well, I'm leaving. Thanks for the training, you crazy loons!_" The Timburr wandered off

"You don't need to be so dramatic Inferno" Rachel said, picking her starter up.

Inferno stopping wailing and grinned at Rachel "_I learned from the best_" she said innocently

Rachel snorted and gave a yawn "c'mon Inferno, it's late- we should head back now."

The brunette reached down and picked up her bag and slung it over her shoulder "Let's head back to town" Rachel yawned again as she headed towards the main path

"_I don't like this Mistress_" Inferno shivered, looking around "_it's too quiet_"

"Me neither" Rachel agreed, she pulled out Venus' great ball. "Come on Inferno, we'd better hurry!"

With Inferno still clinging to her neck, Rachel hurried along the outer part of Pinwheel forest, her blue eyes searching for danger.

Once she reached Nacrene city, it was about 10:30 pm

"Rachel!" She heard Hilbert call her, said teen looked at him

"Yes Hilbert?" Rachel asked, her voice a little shaky

Hilbert looked concerned "are you okay Rachel?" he asked, walking towards her

"y-y-y-yeah, I'm fine" Rachel said, she took a deep breath and exhaled, calming down slightly.

"Are you sure?" Hilbert asked and place a hand on her shoulder and Rachel glared at him

"Yeah, now if you don't mind – I have somewhere I need to be" Rachel said icily, she wretched Hilbert's hand off her shoulder and walked to the pokecenter, still visibly mad.

Rachel walked into the pokecenter and went downstairs to the rooms. She walked along to the end of the hall to where the number 99 was marked on a door. Rachel fumbled her bag for only a few minutes before pulling out the key. She unlocked the door and walked into the room, closing the door behind her.

The room was rather bare, with the grey, cold concrete floor, the metal bunk bed with its plain white sheets and a picture of a patrat.

Rachel sighed; she kicked off her shoes, dropped her bag on the floor and passed out on the bed.

OOO

_An 11 year old Rachel stood in horror, watching the flames consume her home, her parents, her friends…She hung her head and closed her eyes tightly as she became limp in her captor's grasp_

"_This was your fault Rachelle DiAblo" a cold voice said from in front of her "This could have been prevented if you hadn't stuck your nose into our business. But now, you must pay the price!"_

"_You're no man" Rachel whispered, she opened her eyes and glared at the stern expression of the crime boss "You're a monster and I swear to Arceus; I WILL avenge my parents and friends!" she said defiantly_

"_No Rachelle, YOU'RE the monster. Little girls do not get their parents killed or their friends. They stay at home and play with dolls."_

_Rachel growled and wretched her right arm free and quickly punched her captor and then kicked his family jewels. Once free, Rachel ran over to the crime boss, a murderous glint in her eyes._

"_Then maybe it's a good thing I'm NOT a little girl!" Rachel growled, she punched at him, but he grabbed her fist in his hand and looked at Rachel with a bored expression "Is that the best you can do?" he almost taunted._

_Rachel growled deep in her throat (something she had picked up from Static, her Luxray) and swung her other hand, but he caught it too. Rachel smirked at the crime boss and kicked him in the groin._

_The crime boss released Rachel's hands and said girl took off, unfortunately, the crime boss caught her._

"_Let me go!" Rachel yelled, the seriousness of her situation finally reaching her sleep depraved mind._

_The crime boss didn't answer; he grabbed her throat and began to choke her._

"_Rachel! RACHEL! RACHEL!" she heard Cynthia called_

OOO

"CYNTHIA!" Rachel yelled, she shot up in bed, panting heavily and looked around franticly before she relaxed "it was just a dream" she whispered

'A memory' she corrected mentally, Rachel glanced at the clock "5:30 am?" she said and laid back down on the mattress "I can't get back to sleep any time soon…"

Rachel sat back up and walked over to her bag, sometime during the night, Inferno had made her way to the foot of the bed.

Rachel smiled when she saw Inferno curled up, she was glad Inferno was too young to witness the horrors she'd been though. Rachel's smiled faltered as she remembered the original Inferno; her very first Pokémon and true friend.

Shaking her head to clear any thoughts, Rachel walked over to her bag and picked it up, she quickly checked though it to make sure nothing was broken. Satisfied, Rachel slipped it on and walked back over to the sleeping Inferno and gently picked the young Pokémon up.

OOO

Hilbert could not sleep, he only managed to get a few hours before he woke again "curses" he muttered, throwing the covers aside, he checked the time 5:30 am.

"Of all the nights…" he muttered again slipping on his shoes and putting a pair shorts and a tee before grabbing his bag and leaving the room.

He walked down the hall and out into the main pokecenter lobby

"Rachel!" he called out in surprise, and surprising the few, sleepy, pokecenter workers.

"Hi Hilbert" Rachel said, also surprised "what are you doing here, this early?"

"Couldn't sleep" Hilbert shrugged

"Me neither" Rachel admitted "I was just about go to the outer Pinwheel forest to look at the stars, want to join me?"

"Sure" Hilbert shrugged, but inside he was going; 'YES! YES! YES! He shoots! He scores!'

Rachel shifted Inferno to her right shoulder "c'mon, let's go"

Rachel led Hilbert outside and walked out of the city until they reached a beaten down path "c'mon Hilbert!" Rachel said, she ran down the path and Hilbert followed her, within a few minutes, both of them were sitting with their backs to challenge rock and watching the stars.

"Rachel…" Hilbert started "do you ever wish that you could rewind some moments of your life, or pause them so they last forever?"

Rachel was silent for a moment "yeah, I do" she voice sound… different, instead of her usual craziness, it was sad and full of regret? Hilbert looked at Rachel, at first glance she was looking at the stars, but she wasn't seeing them. Her blue eyes were kind of glazed over as if she was in deep thought, or she was remembering something, reliving that memory.

"Are you okay?" Hilbert asked, concerned for his friend/crush (but he'd sooner die then admit it)

"Huh? Oh, yeah, sure" Rachel said, snapping out of her thoughts "Just a memory"

Hilbert didn't say anything, but by Rachel's reaction, the memory was more than 'just' a memory.

OOO

"Now Stormer! Finish with Shockwave!" Rachel's voice called, the Blitzle's body glowed yellow before the electricity gathered at Stormer's mane and he released it, hitting the Sawk head on

"_Now it's MY turn!"_ the Sawk grinned and kicked Stormer twice, using double kick

"_OW!_" Stormer complained, charging up another shockwave and sending it at the Sawk

"Now! Once more! Quick attack!" Rachel called, Stormer ran at Sawk, a white light trailing behind him. The Blitzle hit Sawk which sent the fighting type crashing onto the ground.

"_Good fight_" the Sawk said, he wandered off and Rachel sprayed a super potion on Stormer.

"_I did good mistress! Didn't I?_" Stormer said happily and Rachel grinned at her Pokémon

"Yes you did" Rachel grinned at the electric type, she checked the X-transceiver "it's 8:30 am, who's up for grub?" she asked her three Pokémon

"_Yeah_!" they cheered

"_Yummy food!_" Venus giggled, dancing after Rachel as she made her way through the tall grass and towards the path. Inferno and Stormer shot her an alarmed look

"_How'd I get dragged into this mess?_" Stormer asked, mostly to himself

"_Easy, you lost, to me, __THE ALL MIGHTY, ALL POWERFUL, GREAT CONQUEROR OF GIRATINA; THE EVERLASTING INFERNO!_" Inferno declared

"_Not a sane one in sight…"_ Stormer groaned, wishing he had hands, then he could face palm and eat coconuts 'where'd that thought come from…' Stormer thought to himself before going wide-eyed "_I'M BECOMING ONE OF_ THEM_!_" he whinnied in distress

Rachel shook her head at her Pokémon's antics "you know guys; we could be very successful with stand up comedy." She told them dryly "but then…"

"_Oh crap_"

"_There she goes… again_"

"_Arceus save us all"_

Rachel turned to her Pokémon "you guys are good, how'd you guys know I was about to go all dramatic?"

Venus, Stormer and Inferno shared a look "_our 5__th__ sense"_ they said in unison

"I don't know if I should be amused or annoyed" Rachel told them

"Be amused" Cheren called from behind her "It's easier that way"

Rachel twirled around to face him "Line stealer!" she called, putting her hands on her hips and a very pissed off expression on her face

Cheren paled with fear and took several steps back, stuttering an excuse

"Oh lighten up Chery dear" Rachel dropped her pissed expression and smirked at Cheren

"Don't call me that!" Cheren protested, getting a grip on himself

Rachel shrugged "why do you keep telling me that if I never listen to you?" she asked, resuming her trek to Nacrene city

Cheren stared after her "good point" he muttered before heading off to the Pinwheel forest to train.

**Finished with chap eight! This was slightly more serious than the other chapters, but I figured I would let hints of Rachel's past come out and then reveal the whole story. Next chapter is Rachel's (second) battle with N! So far I figured out Ferriswheelshipping, duelrivalshipping and one-sided chesshipping. Does anyone have any suggestions about which girl I should pair Hilbert with?**

**Please review and Rachel WILL stamp upon any flames.**


	9. Chapter 9

**I do not own Pokémon, nor do I own ghetsis or any of the characters EXCEPT for Rachel. I don't even own a car or a DSi… I don't own the Hunger Games either. I don't own skylanders either or Mario or Harry Potter. I don't own Doctor Who either**

**Rated K+ for mild *cough* violence, mentions of the Hunger Games' awesomeness oh and complete randomness.**

**Sorry for some OOCness too**

_Flashback, she had said this a thousand times before…_

"_Pokémon speaking_" Snivy said

"People speaking" Rachel said

'I am a little voice in your head'/'SHUT UP!' mind arguing

"'_quotes from the games'"_

*cue dramatic music*

…

Shade of Grey

Chapter 9

Rachel stepped out of the café "ah! That was a good meal, wasn't it inferno?" she asked her starter

"_Yep! And now we shall destroy the gym leader and his underlings!_" Inferno declared, looking a lot like Rachel from Chapter four.

Rachel sweatdropped "I'm pretty sure, the gym leader is a woman, Inferno"

"_Oh… THEN WE SHALL _DESTROY_ HER AND HER PATHEIC UNDERLINGS!"_ Inferno laughed manically _"The Pokémon was become__ dust, and the dust will become atoms, and the atoms will become-nothing. And the attack will continue, breaking through the rift at the heart of the medusa cascade, into every gym leader's pokéballs, in every dimension, every parallel and every single corner of creation! THIS is my ultimate victory, mistress, THE DESTRUCTION OF EVERY GYM LEADER'S POKEMON THEMSELVES*!"_

Rachel looked at her starter, slightly freaked out "O-ookayy…" she took a step back "I don't think you should watch _Doctor Who_ anymore…"

"_I think you're right_ _mistress_" Stormer agreed, looking warily at Inferno

"Let's go to the gym now" Rachel said, she stepped into the sun and spend a few seconds enjoying the warmth it provided before continuing her trek to the Nacrene Gym.

"Where in Arceus' name could it be?" Rachel wondered as she wandered around the city, looking for the Gym.

"_There's only one place we haven't check yet._" Inferno said "_and that's the museum._"

"That's crazy Inferno! Who in their right mind would put a gym in a _museum_?" Rachel shot back

"_The same people who put a gym in a café._" Inferno shrugged

Inferno's comment made Rachel stop; the teen whirled around to face her starter who was riding on Stormer's back

"Touché" she said "I guess the idea had merit." Rachel turned around and made her way to the museum

It was a semisunny morning and Rachel, Stormer and Inferno were on their way to museum to see if the gym was in there.

Rachel twisted a strand of hair around her finger as she thought about something from her past, she was so engrossed in her thoughts that she didn't see where she was walking and crashed into someone, the impact snapping her out of her thoughts

"Ooh!" Rachel exclaimed, a blush creeping on her face "N! We really ought to stop running into each other – literally!"

N cocked his head to the side "why?" he asked

"Never mind!" Rachel said quickly

_"I... want to see things no one can see. The truths of Pokémon inside Pokéballs. The ideals of how Trainers should be."_ N told her_ "And a future where Pokémon have become perfect... Do you feel the same?"_ he looked at Rachel

Rachel bit her lip as she mulled over the question "that'd be…" the brown haired teen struggled for a moment before looking N in the eye "yes and no**"

"Oh, I think my friends and I should test you" the green haired teen told her, pulling out a pokéball

Rachel grinned "sure, Grasshead Jr!"

"Grasshead Jr?" N repeated

"Uh-huh, what's-his-face is Senor Grasshead and you are Grasshead Jr!" Rachel explained brightly

"_Be flattered, Rachel only nicknames those she truly cares about!" _Stormer told him

"_And those she doesn't like_" Inferno put in, she smiled evilly at N "_I haven't decided which category YOU'RE in, I think the latter***._"

"Fight for me my friend" N said, sending a Pidove out

"Stormer – you're up!" Rachel called, the small zebra like Pokémon ran in front of his mistress

"_Let's begin small fry!_" Stormer said, throwing up his head

"Quick attack!"

"Wait for it Stormer!" the two trainers called at the same time

As Pidove was about to hit Stormer, Rachel called

"Shockwave!" Stormer built up some electric in his mane and shot it at the flying type, who fell to the ground and was laying there; occasionally twitching.

N and Rachel stared at Pidove "uh, Stormer, I think you might have overdid it" Rachel said

Both Venus and Inferno gave their trainer a look

"_Ya think?_" Inferno asked sarcastically, she crossed her arms and gave Stormer a pointed look

"_Shut up shrimp, it's not like YOU could do any better!_" Stormer snapped at the fire type

"_Is that a challenge?_" Inferno asked and Rachel groaned, she took her hat off and ran her left hand thought her hair, messing up her ponytail

"How, in Arceus' name, did I get stuck with the crazy ones?" she groaned

"_Starlys of a feather, flock together_" Venus said, twirling

"Gee Venus, thanks for the vote of confidence" Rachel muttered sarcastically, she looked down at the grass type who only giggled

"Return my friend" N returned Pidove and sent out a Timburr

"_Watch and learn!_" Inferno smirked as she and Stormer switched positions

"Flamewheel!" Rachel exclaimed, taking the first move, Inferno summersaulted into the air and surrounded the chimp Pokémon

"Leer" N countered, Timburr glared at the flaming wheel, but Inferno was unaffected and still hit the fighting type

"_N, I swear you have no brain****!_" Timburr groaned and got to his feet

"_Hear hear"_ Inferno agreed, getting to her feet and glaring at the Timburr

"Lowkick!" N called, Timburr ran at Inferno

"Ember!" Rachel countered; Inferno jumped over Timburr and sent a flurry of embers at him

Timburr fell, knocked out and Inferno landed on her feet behind him

"Why does this look like a scene from a movie?" Rachel wondered as she watched Timburr fall, then Inferno started glowing a blinding white "Yup, I definitely saw this before…"

When the light had faded Inferno had evolved into Monferno!

"_YEAH BABY!_" Inferno punched the air

N returned Timburr as Stormer told Inferno "_It STILL took you TWO moves to take Timburr down."_

Inferno glared "_so? I evolved and you haven't_!"

"_That was a cheap shot!_" Stormer neighed in protest

"_If that makes you feel better…_" Inferno smirked, walking over to Rachel

"You're up my friend!" N sent out his last Pokémon – a Tympole.

"_Yay! It's my turn now!_" the tympole said happily, bouncing up and down

"Venus, you're up" Rachel said and the grass type danced onto the field.

"Start with Round" N commanded

"Use energy ball Venus!" Rachel called

Before Venus could start her attack, Tympole had opened his mouth and began to sing, loudly and horribly

"_Turn it off!_" Stormer whinnied in distress, throwing his head up and down

"_Arceus save us!_" Inferno cried, curling up on the ground in a fetal position, her hands (?) covering her ears "_Just kill me now!_"

"_SAVE US VENUS!"_ Stormer neighed, and N and Rachel looked at Rachel's Pokémon, confusion clear on their features.

"Don't look at me" Rachel defended herself "I didn't know these guys were loons when I caught them!"

"_Why doesn't anyone like my singing?_" Tympole asked, and Venus, seeing her opportunity, shot an energy ball at the water type.

Due to the fact Venus was stronger than Tympole and weak to grass type moves, the tadpole Pokémon was defeated

"_WHAT ARE THE ODDS?_" Inferno yelled, getting up

N quietly returned Tympole, before looking at Rachel "'Right_ now; my friends aren't strong enough to save all Pokémon. Maybe I can't solve the equation that will change the world. So, I need power... Power enough to make anyone agree with me."_ N told her, he looked up at the sky, a determined expression found its way onto his features _"Now I know what power I need. Zekrom! The legendary Pokémon that, along with the hero, created the Unova region. It's my turn to become that hero-and you and I will be friends!' "He_ smiled at Rachel before walking towards the pokecenter

Once N was out of sight, Inferno commented "_This seems like a clichéd soap opera"_

"_Well, I think his butter slid off his plate, there's a reason they're call LEGENDARIES!"_ Stormer snorted "_you can't exactly find one under a rock"_

"True, but some legends are true" Rachel said softly

***peeks out from behind a tree* oooh, um, hi? Sorry it took so long for an update, I had writer's block and then the Fictional Fanfiction Supreme Overlords of All Things Fictional tried me in court for 'False advertising' apparently, they deemed that Shade of Grey isn't a black novelization, but a Pokémon black fic.**

**ANYWAY, I'm back, mostly unharmed and excited because tomorrow I pick up my copy of pkmn White 2. (YES! YES! YES!) Which, by the way, I only chose because I get Rhesiram (which is why I chose pkmn black) let's face it; fire types are better than electric types.**

**Okay, you guys probably don't want to hear anymore rambling and want to know about the little * things:**

***=Doctor Who quote, modified of course**

****= that's a pretty deep question, don't cha think?**

*****= let's face it, Inferno doesn't like N because she thinks N made Rachel cry**

******= …nuff said. I mean **_**leer**_**, really N? What did I make you think?**

**Next chapter is Rachel's gym battle! And Hilbert meets someone… stay tuned!**

…

**ANYWAY! I'm proposing in December, the 18****th**** to 25****th ****2012 (week of x-mas) is a sitewide review week (need to work on a better name), so every story you read, leave a review!**

**Please pass this message along to every person you know and you may put it in your disclaimers, just get the word out, K?**


	10. SC01

**I do not own Pokémon, nor do I own ghetsis or any of the characters EXCEPT for Rachel. I don't even own a car or a DSi… I don't own the Hunger Games either. I don't own skylanders either or Mario or Harry Potter. I don't own Young Justice**

**Rated K+ for mild *cough* violence, mentions of the Hunger Games' awesomeness oh and complete randomness.**

**Sorry for some OOCness too**

**This chapter has some major fourth wall breaking! You have been warned!**

_Flashback, she had said this a thousand times before…_

"_Pokémon speaking_" Snivy said

"People speaking" Rachel said

'I am a little voice in your head'/'SHUT UP!' mind arguing

"'_quotes from the games'"_

*cue dramatic music*

…

Shade of Grey

SC01

Rachel's adventure with scene break

…

* * *

A teen girl about 15 peered at the computer as she scrolled down, laughing at something she read, when all of a sudden, a message popped up.

The girl frowned and clicked on it,

* * *

_Immortal Horse,_

_It has come to our attention that on your story "Shade of Grey" is falsely advertising, so it is set that you must appear at our courts on the date Tuesday 9__th__ of October at 3:00 pm central time_

_If you do not appear, we will be forced to use extreme use of Plot Bunnies, Lemons, Mary Sues and all other manner of unpleasant fanfictions against you._

_Yours truly_

_The Fictional Fanfiction Supreme Overlords of all things Fictional_

* * *

"Well curses" the girl muttered, she glanced at the clock "that's in an hour! Oh shoot!" she locked the computer and ran to her room

* * *

"I'm bored!" Hilbert whined "IH hasn't even thought about something decent yet!" he complained loudly

"I know, but we're stuck until she does!" Cheren gave him a look

"And I'm going to lose" N told them, Cheren, Bianca, Rachel, N and Hilbert were sitting at a café all nursing cups of coffee.

"Yeah, I swear she isn't following the storyline at all! And she has the nerve to call this a black novelization!" Cheren banged his fist against the table

"I heard she got called out on that by the Fictional Fanfiction Supreme Overlords of all things Fictional." Bianca shrugged

"sooo, now what are gonna do?" N asked

"It's quite simple really" Rachel stated, she grinned evilly "We write the chapter ourselves!"

Bianca looked doubtful "Are you sure about this?"

Rachel pulled out a device "Yes!" she pressed a button

OOO

"So THAT'S what it does!" Rachel marveled as she stood outside the pokecenter "scene break!"

She checked the time "it's only been a few minutes, weird" she shrugged and started back to the café

OOO

Rachel stopped, she looked around and saw that she was already at the café "that was weird" she muttered "I could have sworn I was by the pokecenter…" the brown haired teen shrugged and entered the building

"Rachel!" Hilbert called "Where were you?"

"Scene break" Rachel told them, she took her seat by N

OOO

"OH COME ON!"

OOO

"This isn't funny!"

OOO

"Chery Dear, I think the button is broken." Rachel told the dark haired teen "do you have any idea on how to fix it?"

"…hit it with a hammer?"

"Pfft, like that's…"

OOO

"WHAT ARE THE ODDS?!"

OOO

This time Rachel didn't say anything, she just hit the device with a hammer i.e one of those huge, plastic/wooden hammers that are drawn in cartoons. She continued to smash the device until it was nothing but tiny particles of plastic, a couple wires and metal.

Rachel put the hammer down and glared at the now, completely and utterly destroyed, it was beyond destroyed; it was annihilated and being tossed in the wind.

"…" Rachel started to say

OOO

Rachel was pissed, no, she was beyond pissed, she was enraged, fuming, livid and all those good words

"This has got to be revenge!" she decided, pacing "There's no way THIS is an accident!"

She glared at the sky and scowled deeply

OOO

**(AN: This is between the events Fate and Destiny, two of my other stories)**

"Where the heck am I?" Rachel asked, she got up off the ground and looked around

"Who are you?" a girl about Rachel's age demanded, the girl had slivery platinum blonde hair that hung loose on her back and reached her waist and she had dullish red eyes. She wore a simple white tank top, light blue shorts, brown sandals, a green necklace, a yellow belt, a small yellow hair bow and a brown fanny pack. The girl was in a fighting stance and had a defensive look in her eyes

"Rachel, and is this mount coronet?" Rachel asked

"Ariana, chillax!" another girl appeared out of a greyish portal "she's not from this dimension"

The girl shifted into a slightly more relaxed position "are you sure Diena?"

Diena nodded "positive"

"How'd you get here?" Ariana asked

"Two words; scene break" Rachel growled

"That's tough" Diena said, she placed a hand on the brunette's shoulder

OOO

**(AN: This is between the events of 'The Pichu Song' and 'The Psyduck Song')**

"Why am I on a blank piece of paper?" Rachel asked, blinking and looking around

"Are you IH?" Darkrai asked

"No, I'm Rachel" she told him

"Curses" Regice muttered

"We have a betting pool to see if she shows up, wanna join?" Shaymin asked

Rachel looked at the legendries "a betting pool?"

"It beats watching Cresselia float around trying to kill Darkrai" Regice shrugged (?)

Rachel gave the four legendries a look "you are in a serve need of entertainment."

OOO

**(AN: This scene is after the events of ****Antarctic . Dragon's **'s story "How the 4**th**** wall was almost destroyed" all rights belong to her)**

Rachel looked up to see an A unown muttering darkly.

"This is… weird" Rachel said, struggling for a moment to find the right word

A: *looks down* you're using the wrong format.

Rachel glared "Am NOT!"

A: yeah, you actually are. You using 'normal' format. This scene takes place in the HT4WWAD 'verse. HT4WWAD is written in script format.

Rachel looked at him "You're nuts."

Antarctic . Dragon: WHO DARES TO ENTER MY STORY! *sees Rachel* GROVEL BEFORE ME, MINIONS! BEG FOR MERCY! I AM THE ALL-POWERFUL, ALL-KNOWING, AWESOMELY AUTHOR-LIKE Antarctic . Dragon!

Rachel crossed her arms, glared at the sky "You sound like Inferno" she said annoyed

A: you're not the awesomely author-like Antarctic . Dragon, you're the awesomely author-like Antarctic . Draggin '!

Antarctic . Dragon: …

..YOU SHALL BE PUNISHED FOR SUCH BLASPHEMY! YOU *glares at Rachel* ARE FOREVERMORE BANISHED FROM MY AWESOMELY AUTHOR-LIKE PRESENCE! *uses scene break to send Rachel to another story with her awesomely author-like awesomeness*

OOO

**(AN: This scene is taken from my Young Justice Story "The Rise from Ashes: the Phoenix's flame" between the three month block before the 'official' chapter one began)**

Rachel blinked and she glanced around the room "I hate scene break" she said loud enough for the heroes who were surrounding her hear

"Explain" Batman said gruffly

"Easy, I got a hold of a device, it broke, I smashed it and now with every scene break I seem to be jumping from story to story." Rachel explained "Is this IH's story or did I get bounced into someone else's?"

"This is Immortal Horse's story" Phoenix said, not relaxing from her stance

Rachel gave a sigh of relief "good"

"Who are you?" Black Canary asked

"Rachel DiAblo, from Shade of Grey – it's in the Pokémon Fanfictions" she told them "I'm a good guy too, IH doesn't really create her own villains, but she's working on it."

"Didn't she get called into the courts for 'False advertising'" Robin asked

"Yes I did, now Rachel, why in Arceus' name are you in The Rise from Ashes?" a horse asked, appearing out of thin air, she glared at the Pokémon trainer "This isn't a crossover!"

"Scene break" Rachel told her

IH rolled her eyes "If I could snap my fingers I would, but I'm in story form so no snapping fingers to fix things. Go back to your own story!" Rachel disappeared and IH turned to face YJ and batman

"I'd better get back too, have fun!"

OOO

"Rachel! Where were you?!" Bianca asked, hugging the teen

Rachel had appeared out of thin air in front of the group who were starting to worry about her

"Two words" Rachel told them "scene breaks"

N grinned "Did you get everything?"

Rachel grinned manically "yep, now! Let's go write a chapter!"

..

**MUWHAHAHA! Rachel here, Bianca told me to write an AN, or disclaimer down here, so yeah… **

**If you want Hilbert, Cheren, Bianca or N to have an adventure or a SC (side chapter) on their adventure, Review! If you liked this, review.**

**Giratina, if you didn't like it, review and any flamers will find themselves on the receiving end of Batman's 'batglare'!**

**Cheren gave her an annoyed look "she means that she will stamp upon any flames."**

**No Chery Dear, what I really mean is any flamers or anyone that doesn't like how I told MY adventure will be tossed into the fairy furnace!**

**Cheren looked at Rachel's statement "you do realize that you have 'fairy' instead of fiery', right?"**

…**Curse you autocorrect.**

***3rd POV***

**Then some random fairy hating pyromanic laughed "MUWHAHAHA! BURN THEM! BURN THE FARIES!"**

**Both Cheren and Rachel blinked**


	11. Chapter 10

**I do not own Pokémon, nor do I own ghetsis or any of the characters EXCEPT for Rachel. I don't even own a car or a DSi… I don't own the Hunger Games either.**

**Rated K+ for mild *cough* violence, oh and complete randomness.**

**Sorry for some OOCness too (why do I have that if some of the characters are meant to act OOC? I will never understand myself…)**

_Flashback, she had said this a thousand times before…_

"_Pokémon speaking_" Snivy said

"People speaking" Rachel said

'I am a little voice in your head'/'SHUT UP!' mind arguing

"'_quotes from the games'"_

*cue dramatic music*

…

Shade of Grey

Chapter 10

Rosa looked around the café, she and her class had just arrived in Nacrene city for a two day trip and they had an hour of free time. So here she was, sitting at a table with her best friend Hugh.

"Where do you want to go first?" Hugh asked, looking at the girl

"I don't know, how about the museum?" Rosa suggested "Or we could check out the warehouses…"

The two finished their drinks in silence before paying the bill and leaving to be greeted by a large crowd.

"C'mon! I heard there's a battle at the pokecenter!" they heard someone say to his friend, curious, Rosa followed them to the pokecenter's battle field where four teens, about 2 years older than her were battling

"Use growth Snivy!" a blonde girl called, the dark haired, glasses wearing teen called out to his oshawott

"Watergun Oshawott!"

"Dodge and use ember on Snivy!" a cute brown haired boy call out across the battle field

"brick break on Oshawott Inferno!" the girl on the brunette's right side called

The small snake like Pokémon glowed a greenish color while Oshawott wordlessly sent a watergun at an ape like Pokémon.

Tepig shot out several small embers at Snivy, who dodged most of them. The apelike pokemon, 'Inferno' it was called ran at the water type, its hand glowing a white color.

"watergun!" the dark haired teen called

Just before Inferno hit Oshawott, the otterlike Pokémon shot a stream of water at the chimp like Pokémon, in its face.

"_Insolent peasant" _Inferno grumbled "_You shall pay for this act against us; the __ALL MIGHTY, ALL POWERFUL, GREAT CONQUEROR OF GIRATINA; THE EVERLASTING INFERNO!" _ Inferno hit Oshawott on the side with a powerful Brick Break.

"…" Oshawott just glared at Inferno and hit it with his scalchop.

"Tackle Porker!" the cute boy called, his Tepig rammed into the Oshawott, KOing it.

"Oshawott, return" the dark haired teen returned his starter

"Use leer Moss!" the blonde called to her Snivy

"Now use ember Porker!"

"Your too Inferno!" the two brunettes called in sync, both fire types spat small embers at the grass type who was unable to dodge them

"Have a long rest Snivy" the blonde returned her fainted Pokémon

"Great job Hilbert and Rachel!" the blonde girl grinned at the two "Inferno and Porker are getting really strong!"

"_See? Even Bianca knows about our awesomeness!_" Inferno chattered, climbing onto Rachel's shoulder

"_Egotistical monkey_" Porker muttered just before Hilbert returned him

"That was a good battle, but I have training to do" the dark haired boy addressed the blonde teen and the other two. He turned to leave

"See ya Chery Dear!" Rachel called after him

The teen whirled around "That's NOT my name!" he hissed

"I'll check with you two later!" the blonde girl went after 'Chery dear' as Rachel called him

"Rosa, what are you doing?" Rosa heard Hugh ask her as she walked towards Hilbert

"Great battle!" she chirped and out of the corner of her eye, she saw Rachel stiffen slightly

"Er, Thanks" Hilbert rubbed the back of his head and grinned at her "I'm Hilbert! And Over there is Rachel." He jerked his thumb over to where Rachel was

"What's that?" Hugh asked, coming over and looking at Inferno intently

"_She_ has a name and it's Inferno" Rachel said defensively, she scowled and crossed her arms "_Her_ species is called Monferno, and Monfernos are native to the Sinnoh Region."

"Whoa Rachel, no need to be defensive!" Hilbert told her

Rachel just glared and walked off and towards the museum

"Sorry 'bout Rachel, she had a rough night and she gets very defensive about Inferno." Hilbert sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose "Anyway, are you new here in Nacrene?"

"School trip" Rosa answered

Hilbert nodded in understanding "Oh, do you have a Pokémon?"

"Not yet" Hugh answered the brown haired trainer

OOO

Rachel glared at the bookshelf, as if to will it to move. She knew she was reacting strongly but that girl, Rosa reminded her so much of her birth mother, it was uncanny how much they looked alike. Rachel's glare deepen as she thought of her birth mother, who had dumped Rachel on her father's doorstep and never wanted to see them again. 'no, she's NOT my mother, she's only the person who gave birth to me, my REAL mother died in the fire…' a hot tear rolled down her cheek

'_Are you alright Mistress?_' Inferno asked attentively, placing her left hand on Rachel cheek

"Yeah, I'm good" Rachel told the Monferno in a shaky voice, she stood there for a moment – recovering, before she pushed the bookshelf to reveal a hidden staircase.

Rachel wiped the tear away "Let's go destroy that gym leader, m'kay?"

Inferno only gave her a look, but the two went down the stairs to challenge Lenora.

OOO

"Are you getting the feeling that this is gonna totally blow up in our faces?" Jack asked Jill from the corner of his mouth

They, several other members of Team Plasma and Gorm of the Seven Sages were debriefing in the inner part of Pinwheel Forest.

"Now that you mention it, yes, yes I am." Jill muttered back

Bob just looked at them and elbowed Jack in the ribs

"Ouch!"

OOO

Rachel and Lenora looked at each other from across the battlefield, they were both down to their final pokemon. On Lenora's side it was her Watchog and on Rachel's side it was Stormer.

Both pokemon were tried out and panting, knowing that one move could finish the battle

"Get in close Stormer! Use Quick Attack!" Rachel called out, her blue eyes hardening with determination

"Counter with Crunch!" Lenora called

Stormer ran at the normal type, leaving a trail of dust behind him, Watchog's front teeth glowed white and the normal type rushed at Stormer.

Rachel bit her lip "Dodge it Stormer!" she called, at the last possible second, Stormer swerved, causing Watchog to bit the dust.

"Now Shockwave!"

"_On… it…"_ Stormer gathered electricity in his mane and shot it at Watchog, who was unable to dodge it and was KO'd instantly.

"Great job Stormer!" Rachel returned the tired Pokémon "take a nice long rest."

" '_Your fighting style is so enchanting. It is charming. You are a Pokémon Trainer worthy of receiving this Basic Badge!' " _ Lenora said from across the field, she returned Watchog and walked over to Rachel and handed her the Basic Badge _" 'If you have two Badges, traded Pokémon up to Lv. 30 will obey you. Here, I also want you to have this TM."_ The dark-skinned gymleader handed Rachel a TM, which she promptly put in her bag, along with the badge

_" 'Retaliate does a lot more damage if an ally fainted the turn before you use it! If you master the timing, you can defeat even strong opponents.' "_ Lenora explained to the brown haired trainer _" 'Some problems you can't solve even if you think about them your whole life. Some problems have different answers depending on the person. Still, the reason I can't keep my curiosity down is this: I want to figure out the truth, but I also have a desire for adventure!' "_

It was at that moment when Hawes came in, slightly out of breath and panicking _" 'Deeear! Dear! Come quickly! Team Plasma is threatening to steal some bones!' "_

Lenora looked at him alarmed "THEY'RE WHAT?!" she exclaimed "Come on Rachel!" she ran up the stairs and towards the museum with Hawes hot on her tail

Rachel sweatdropped but followed them up to the exhibit hall where, sure enough there about six grunts

"Stop right there!" Lenora ordered the grunts "What in Victini's name do you think you're doing with MY exhibits?!"

The grunts turned to face her and Jill smirked

"So the high and mighty gym leader comes! We, Team Plasma, claim this Dragon Skull in the name Pokémon liberation!" she declared

"And pineapples!" Jack piped up, causing everyone to look at him strangely

Jill threw a conveniently (actually, it was too convenient, much too convenient…) placed super potion at his head. They heard a soft _thunk_ when the Super Potion hit its mark.

Bob coughed "ANYWAY, moving on… to show…" Bob trailed off and pulled out a notecard from his tunic and began to read it "to show that, we're serious…" at this point, Jack facepalmed and Jill was sitting in the corner of woe, muttering something along the lines of;

"Why me? What have I done to receive such idiotic teammates?!"

"…steal it, right before your eyes?" Bob finished and looked at Lenora, Hawes and Rachel almost questioningly

"Well, then, here is our… hey! Where are the smoke balls?" another grunt (I'll name her Jane) asked, looking at her teammates

"I didn't bring them, I thought YOU brought them" Jack replied

"Well, I didn't bring them; I thought Jill said she was bringing them!" Jane shot back

"Don't look at me" Jill defended herself "John was supposed to check if we had everything!"

"Here they are!" John, a grunt on Jill's right called, he pulled out three smoke balls and threw them on the ground

"Plasmaa-*cough cough*" Bob began to cry but then he started to cough

And as clichéd as it could possibly be, the grunt were gone with the dragon skull when the smoke disappeared.

…

**ANNND DONE! Wow… this chapter took a while; I got busy with NaNoWriMo, and I'm in a play, and then I had a bit of writer's block and to top everything off, I was in charge of Thanksgiving dinner. What a month… **

**ANYWAY… RosaxHilbert isn't an official shipping, but I'm calling it Defendershipping! Because they're both defenders of Unova… yeah, I didn't see a pairing for them on Bulbapedia…**

**ANYHO! Team Plasma stole the Dragon Skull and of course they almost forgot the smoke balls… lol, I had fun writing them.**

**Thanks to everyone for reviewing and please, keep them coming! And Rachel will stamp on any flames!**


	12. Chapter 11

**I do not own Pokémon, nor do I own ghetsis or any of the characters EXCEPT for Rachel. I don't even own a car or a DSi… I don't own the Hunger Games either. Or Star Wars**

**Rated K+ for mild *cough* violence, oh and complete randomness.**

_Flashback, she had said this a thousand times before…_

"_Pokémon speaking_" Snivy said

"People speaking" Rachel said

'I am a little voice in your head'/'SHUT UP!' mind arguing

"'_quotes from the games'"_

*cue dramatic music*

…

Shade of Grey

Chapter 11

Lenora was the first one to snap out of her shock " _'what's going on?_' " she questioned mostly to herself before running outside.

"We have to go after them!" Hawes exclaimed and Rachel quickly followed Lenora outside to see the gym leader looking around

"Hello Lenora! Did you find any good fossils lately?" a tall man asked, walking up to her, of course Rachel recognized him immediately; Allison had been a great fan of his work and would chatter endlessly about him.

" '_This is a surprise visit! Are you suffering from artist's block again? Rachel, t__his is_…' " Lenora turned to Rachel, but the trainer interrupted her

"Burgh, artist and current gym leader of the Castelia gym" Rachel crossed her arms and looked over at Burgh "I had a friend who was a great fan of your work"

Burgh looked interested "Oh?"

"But I lost contact with her a few years ago" Rachel shrugged

"Still, what are you doing here?" Lenora asked him again

Burgh scratched the back of his head "Just looking for a change of pace, ya know?" he looked around "seems very hectic 'round here, what's up?"

"What's up? WHAT'S UP?! THOSE NO GOOD TEAM PLASMA GOONS STOLE MY SKULL!" Lenora shouted

"Be a little louder, won't cha?" Rachel grumbled "I don't think sinnoh can hear you"

"That's awkward out of context" Burgh laughed nervously, of course Lenora's shouting had drawn the attention out many people, including Rachel's friends and Hugh and Rosa.

"What's going on Rachel?" Bianca asked, coming up to her friend, with Cheren and Hilbert following her

"I think TP ran off with something" Hilbert put in

Lenora turned to face them "and these three are…" she trailed off

"My friends, Bianca, Cheren and Hilbert" Rachel told her curtly, pointed at said people "introductions aside, we need to go after TP before they get too far ahead of us."

"Right" Lenora "I'll check route 3, you three" she pointed to Hilbert, Cheren and Bianca "stay here and you two" she pointed to Burgh and Rachel "can check the Pinwheel forest. I'm counting on all of you!"

"Right, I need to heal my Pokémon first." Rachel told Burgh

"Right, I'll see you at the entrance in five?" the artist asked

"Uh-huh" Rachel called over her shoulder as she ran down the cobbled street towards the pokecenter

OOO

Hugh watched as Lenora – as Burgh called her- ran off towards route 3. He had heard her yell at Burgh about Team Plasma and what they did

"When I'm old enough…" he growled, 'Team plasma would PAY for what they've done!' He thought darkly and scowled

"Hey, settle down Hugh" Rosa told him as the crowd began to disperse "we're not here for revenge."

"Somebody has to make them pay!" Hugh growled before walking off

Rosa only shook her head and looked sadly after him "revenge is never the answer Hugh, it will destroy you more than anything else"

OOO

"Tree branch" Burgh called out to Rachel, only for his warning to be too late and for Rachel to walk into said tree branch

"OW! My poor nose" Rachel protested, her hands flying up to her nose and rubbing it.

The two had just reached the pinwheel forest and where standing front of a path leading deep into the inner most forest.

"Alright Rachel, there are two ways out of Pinwheel forest" Burgh told her "so to give the player something to do, I'M going to check up this way on the path and I'll meet you in the clearing and leave you to go through the dense pinwheel forest alone and there's a possibly that you'll get lost and could die. But have no fear because if you faint, you'll just go back to the last pokecenter you entered. Okay?" the artist gave her a smile before _skipping_ up the path

"Wha?" Rachel just looked utterly and completely confused

"_I think he did that on purpose Mistress_" Stormer told her, coming out of his pokéball

"_Ya think?_" Inferno snipped from Rachel's other side

Rachel groaned "just stop it you two!" the brown hair trainer rubbed her temples before going into the dark, dense, overall creepy pinwheel forest. Stormer and Inferno watched as Rachel walked into the forest and out of sight

"_Should we go after her?_" Stormer whinnied and Inferno was about to agree when Rachel's scream pierced the quiet late autumn* afternoon

"_MISTRESS!_" both Pokémon cried, running into the forest

OOO

"Looks like a ranger startled someone" Jane sniggered to John as they took a moment to recover from carrying the heavy dragon skull "and you know what? I really don't think this is what we're after"

John shrugged; he slipped off his uniform's hood and removed the orange wig "boss's orders Jane."

OOO

"Sorry 'bout that" Forrest, a Pokémon ranger apologized, helping Rachel to her feet, the blond cringed under Inferno's glare.

"Arceus! Do you have to jump out and scare people like that?!" Rachel asked, placing a hand over her still frantically beating heart

"Sorry" Forrest rubbed the back of his head sheepishly; he gave her a lopsided grin "I'll hold off on the Pokémon battle, m'kay?"

Rachel brushed off some dirt "sure" she shrugged "OH! Have you seen about six plasma grunts?"

Forrest scratched his head "I think so… they were heading North West and were carrying a skull, don't know what it was for…"

"Thanks!" Rachel called over her shoulder as she sprinted off in the general direction Forrest had mentioned, Stormer and Inferno ran right after her

OOO

"Professor, this is Brownie, why'd you give me such a stupid codename? Over" Hilbert said into his "walkie talkie", there was a crackle before Bianca's voice came though

"Brownie, professor here, because your hair is brown, now keep the line clear! Over"

Rosa giggled as Hilbert sighed "Brownie to Professor; you are taking this WAY too seriously. Over"

"Bookworm to Professor and Brownie; SHUT UP! Over" Rosa laughed as Cheren's voice, clearly irritated, came though the X-transceiver accompanying a crackle of electricity.

"Brownie to Bookworm; make me, over" Hilbert hung up and turned to Rosa "this sucks, we have the mind blowing boring watch while Rachel gets all the action!"

"Bookworm to Brownie; bring it small fry! Over"

"IT IS SO ON CHEREN! Over" Rosa was now laughing as Bianca's voice came though

"Professor to Bookworm and Brownie; Will you two stop playing around!? Over"

OOO

"This sucks! Hilbert, Cheren and Bianca get the easy job while I had to army crawl though poison ivy!" Rachel grumbled as she tried to reach for her pocketknife.

"_This is embarrassing!_" Stormer whinnied; Rachel and Stormer were literally tied up, in a whole mess of vines. Not to mention, Rachel was getting very itchy from Army Crawling in poison ivy.

"I hate this place!" Rachel snarled as her pocketknife slipped out of her grasp and hit the forest ground – way out of reach "Curse Burgh to the deepest, darkest pits of the Reverse World" Rachel growled "that little…"

"…_And there she goes again_" Stormer sighed, he felt the need to try to be levelheaded and open-minded, seeing how the rest of his team mates was an egotistical monkey with a grudge against anyone who looked at Mistress Rachel sideways and a dreamy, rather loony glorified humanoid rose bush.

Okay, who was he kidding; his team mates were irrational and utterly bonkers! Of course it didn't help matters that Mistress Rachel nearly always seemed to be in great pain or great anger. The Blitzle sighed again, how did he get into such a mess again?

'Oh yeah, I got caught' the electric type thought as he struggled to get out. Stormer groaned to himself as he thought about his team mates and mistress – they were like a time bomb, ready to blow at any second. But they all were strangely competent together. Stormer mentally shrugged; there were just stuff in life that no one could understand or explain – like why the glue in glue sticks didn't stick to the container…

Rachel groaned and leaned back, or at least, attempted to.

"Why me?" she wondered out loud "why do I have to be the one who gets into these kinds of things? You better not say a word Stormer!"

"_Wasn't planning to Mistress_"

"Need some help down?" Forrest ask, he looked at the trainer and her Pokémon and wondered how they got into such a position

"Yes please!" Rachel exclaimed and the ranger pulled out a machete and began to cut the vines – until Rachel fell on the mossy ground, on her back.

"Thanks again" Rachel told him gratefully but a little breathlessly because the landing had knocked the wind out of her.

Forrest helped her up "Did you get in some poison ivy or something?" he asked

"Something like that" Rachel returned Stormer into his pokéball "Anyway, I need to be going, thanks a lot for your help!" Rachel approached the log and began to climb up. When Rachel reached the top, she slid down the other log into a smaller clearing and into a mud puddle.

"Crap, crap, crap" she muttered getting out of the mud

" '_How are you holding up fellow subject of our king?_' " an old guy in a olive green robe asked Jill

"Oh besides the fact I'm tired, my arms are aching, I have a headache from the heat and I'm hungry because I forgot my wallet and can't get a burger, I'm fine…" Jill shrugged

"Meddlesome midget, meet Gorm of the Seven Sages" Bob whispered to Rachel

"…Not to mention that darned skull was more trouble than it's worth!" Jill continued

"Pfft" Gorm waved his hand "details, details. The Dragon Skull isn't important; we can afford to cut our losses. Besides, I heard on the radio… er, I mean I heard from our sources that the dragon skull isn't what we're looking for…"

Rachel grinned "This is not the artifact you're looking for" she waved her hand in a very similar fashion as Obi-Wan (?) from _Star Wars_ did

Bob cracked up; however, Gorm was not amused

"Are you making a mockery out of me?" he demanded, indignant

"Nah, you seem to do a good job without my help" Rachel told him, a mocking smile adorning her features "All hail Gorm of the Seven Sages! Lord of self-mockery and of all manner of tomfoolery!"

Jill started giggling, trying her hardest to keep the laugh hidden while Bob was beating the ground and gasping for breath and Gorm's face when though about 10 different shades of red. Oh, and Rachel, she just stood there, head to toe covered in mud, sticks, dead leaves and her arms and legs were bright red from the poison ivy, smiling innocently.

"SHUT UP YOU TWO OR I'LL HAVE YOU ON BATHROOM DEATIL FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIVES!" Gorm screamed, causing both grunts to quickly sober up, he took a few breaths "now, as I was saying, we cannot allow ANYONE to disrupt our plans! So we will fix it so you'll never meddle with us AGAIN!" he glared at Rachel who smiled back

It was at that moment that burgh walked in, he looked really taken aback by Rachel's appearance

"You look like you went through the reverse world and back Rachel" the brown haired gym leader told her

"Been there, done that" Rachel muttered under her breath

Burgh turned to Gorm, Jill and Bob " '_…what do I spy with my little eye? This important looking guy!' _" he said "are you three here to help your guys, who I defeated?" Burgh asked, his eyes holding a challenge

It was then at THAT moment Lenora ran into the clear "Rachel! -What in Giratina's name did you go through? - Burgh! The others didn't find anything! At all!" she turned to face Gorm "and who the heck are you guys?" she turned to face Rachel "is this dude the big boss?"

"As far as I can tell" Rachel shrugged "at least one of them…"

" '_I am Gorm of the Seven Sages, Ghetsis _(which earned a gasp from Rachel "Senor Grasshead!" she exclaimed, earning her a glare from Gorm) _another of the seven sages will liberate Pokémon with words alone! __The remainder of the Seven Sages have ordered their compatriots…' "_

It was at this point, Jill muttered to Rachel, Burgh and Lenora "He means minions"

Gorm continued "_ …'to take Pokémon with full force! But the odds are a little against us now. To you, the Bug Pokémon user Burgh and the Normal Pokémon user Lenora, I say... Know your enemies, know yourself, and know you need not fear the result of a hundred battles... This time, we shall retreat quietly. To secure the liberation of Pokémon we will steal from Trainers! Even though you are Gym Leaders, we will not tolerate any further obstruction from you. In any case, we will settle this someday. I hope you are looking forward to that time as much as I...' " _At that moment, Bob threw down a smoke ball and when the smoke had cleared away, surprise, surprise TP was gone! But they left the Dragon Skull in their place

"Well, that was rude" Lenora scoffed, she went and picked up the dragon skull "So now what burgh? You are planning to chase them, right?"

Burgh shrugged "I don't know, if we corner them, there's no telling what they might do." He turned to face Rachel "I look forward to our gym battle Rachel, assuming you plan to challenge my gym. See ya!" with that being said, Burgh walked away.

"Thanks Rachel" Lenora told the Pokémon trainer "With a great and kindhearted trainer like you, your Pokémon must be happy. Here, take this as a token of my gratitude." She tossed Rachel a moon stone "bye now, I have to take the Dragon Skull back to the museum." She too walked off leaving Rachel behind in the clearing

OOO

"Bookworm to Professor and Brownie; Angrybird is coming our way, I repeat, Angrybird has reached the city! Over" Cheren hung up his x-transceiver and ran over to Rachel, who looked dead beat tired and was filcher then when she and Bianca when to the dreamyard

"Are you okay Rachel?" he asked concerned for his "little sister" in all but blood

"Tired Cheren, so tired" she managed, ignoring the mud, Cheren steered her down the street and to the pokecenter.

**And done! Wow… longest chapter yet!**

**Stormer is easily the level headed one of Rachel's Pokémon, what'd you think about Stormer's thoughts? **

**In the games, the Pinwheel Forest scene is kind of unrealistic, so I added mud, twigs and poison ivy… poor Rachel.**

***= I honestly don't remember if I said what season it was, I think summer, but I have a logical explanation on why it's suddenly late autumn, This is a story, anything can happen. Anyhow, plz review and Rachel loves to stomp on flames…**


	13. Chapter 12

**I do not own Pokémon, nor do I own Ghetsis or any of the characters EXCEPT for Rachel. I don't even own a car or a DSi… I don't own the Hunger Games either**

**Rated K+ for mild *cough* violence, oh and complete randomness.**

**So, I've been calling Ghetsis Senor Grasshead, but what I mean to call him Senior Grasshead, sorry about that. Also, HilbertxRosa is called ElectricBlackShipping**

_Flashback, she had said this a thousand times before…_

"_Pokémon speaking_" Snivy said

"People speaking" Rachel said

'I am a little voice in your head'/'SHUT UP!' mind arguing

"'_quotes from the games'"_

*cue dramatic music*

…

Shade of Grey

Chapter 12

The next morning…

"Call me won't cha?" Hilbert asked, he handed Rosa a piece of paper with his number on it

"Sure" Rosa grinned and accepted the slip of paper "after all, who am I going to rely on for advice?" she winked at him and giggled as her crush turned a shade of red that would put a Simisear to shame.

"Right, I should be leaving soon… gotta get that next gym badge" Hilbert mumbled, looking away and blushing

Rosa smiled and quickly kissed Hilbert on the cheek before running back to her pokecenter room

Hilbert just stood there, mostly from shock, his left hand touching the spot where Rosa had kissed him

"And she kissed him" Bianca confirmed to Rachel and Cheren, as they watched Hilbert, who had the goofiest, cheesiest grin possibly imaginable.

"Someone gotta get that stupid grin off his face" Cheren commented

Rachel grinned evilly; she looked at Cheren and Bianca with a look that could turn armies around "leave it to me" She then proceeded to walk to her room, leaving a very, very freaked out Cheren and Bianca

"We need to get her a psychiatrist." the dark haired teen said, Bianca only mutely nodded in agreement

"We better get one for Hilbert, for when Rachel's done with him..." both teens paled and ran off, leaving Hilbert at the mercy of Rachel, with an evil idea…

Hilbert shook his head and glanced behind him, checking to see if Rachel, Cheren and Bianca were still there, waiting for him; they weren't. A little miffed, Hilbert turned around to see Rachel, a half-crazed/ half-furious, holding her trusty katana mere inches from his face. Naturally, Hilbert did the same reaction anyone else would do in this situation – he screamed like a little girl.

OOO

Rosa was in the middle of packing when she heard an unearthly shriek from downstairs. Alarmed, Rosa ran out of her room and downstairs to see Hilbert, laying on the ground, apparently knocked out and Rachel standing above him, a surprised expression on her face

"Oh. My. Arceus" Rachel mouthed, she looked up and locked eyes with Rosa "I broke Hilbert…"

Hilbert stirred and both girls looked at him

"Anyone get the number of that Gigilath that hit me…" Hilbert trailed off upon seeing Rachel, he promptly fainted again

Rachel picked up Hilbert "We have to hit the road now" she told the girl "bye!" Rosa watched as Rachel proceeded to carry Hilbert out of the pokecenter. The 14 year old shook her head in amusement and went back up to finish packing.

OOO

In all of the four years of being her friend, Cheren had seen Rachel do many strange and unusual things; like make a statue of a bald Alder for an art competition. Rachel had then proceeded to light his head on fire and, when asked about the fire, she had claimed that his hair reminded her of fire*. Needless to say, their art teacher was not amused, but one of the judges was. That had been one of her more unusual things, but this took the cake; Rachel was carrying Hilbert, who was slung over her shoulder and unconscious. Rachel grinned when she saw Cheren standing there

"Ready to go Cheren?" Rachel asked brightly

"Is Hilbert mentally scarred?" Cheren asked bluntly, he crossed his arms and looked at his rival

Rachel blinked and waved her hand dismissively "He'll be fine Chery Dear! I didn't scare him that badly…"

Cheren gave her a hard look

"Alright, fine! He may have a tad bit of PTSD, but no biggie!"

Cheren gave an audible groan; he face palmed and looked at Rachel from over his glasses, reminding her of Dumbledore. "Rachel, you can't keep this up! I don't care if people annoy you! You can't keep traumatizing Hilbert! He'll have to go into rehab!"

"wha?" Hilbert asked, confused, he looked up and Rachel and cringed

"Hiya Hilbert!" Bianca said, and said boy gave a sigh of relief, he knew Rachel wouldn't kill him, unless they were alone, in the middle of the lostlorn forest where she could make his death appear as an accident… Hilbert shuddered and made a mental note to stay away from the Lostlorn forest. At all costs.

Rachel set Hilbert down "C'mon! Let's head to Castelia city!" the girl cheered, and her friends shared a look.

"I take it back" Cheren muttered, mostly to himself "the bald Alder is STILL the strangest things she's done; this is _normal_."

"The statue?" Hilbert confirmed, overhearing Cheren "the one she lit the head on fire?"

"I remember that, Mrs. Hobble was so embarrassed, and angry." Bianca recalled "but her anger was pacified when Rachel won first prize. I wonder what happened to the statue"

"I think Rachel sold it" Hilbert told her

OOO

Meanwhile in a disclosed location…

Ghetsis laughed manically as he threw rotten tomatoes at a bald statue of Alder "MUWHAHAHA!"

OOO

Back with Hilbert, Cheren and Bianca…

Then suddenly, at the same time, all three of them blinked.

"That was weird" Bianca stated; she looked at the boys "c'mon! We need to catch up with Rachel."

The three trainers hurried off towards Pinwheel forest and Skyarrow Bridge.

The autumn morning was a tad chilly as they hurried along the well beaten path towards the bridge, which was a pain in the neck to cross because it was so long.

"Skyarrow Bridge, every trainer's worst nightmare to cross without a bike" they heard Rachel murmur

"Yeah" Bianca agreed "but guess what? Unova doesn't have a bike store, if we want one; it needs to be imported from Sinnoh or Kanto."

"Rachel, what are you doing?" Hilbert asked as Rachel shuffled though her bag, muttering

"Where is it? I know I packed it…" she pulled out a dusty item "here it is!" to everyone surprise (mostly on how it even managed to fit in her messenger bag) she pulled out a unicycle and promptly got on it

"See you suckers later!" she called over her shoulder as she peddled into the gate

As they heard muffled laughter, Hilbert turned to Cheren and Bianca "five minutes?" he asked

"yeah" the two confirmed.

OOO

Despite Rachel's very accurate description of the Skyarrow Bridge, there was still a fair amount of trainers on it. Nearly all of whom were panting or chugging down various cold drinks, despite the chill in the air.

Rachel wizzed by said trainers on her unicycle, she would be the first DiAblo to cross Unova on unicycle. She gave a said smile, her dad would've been proud, expanding the family tradition to other regions…

"Nice ride!" she heard an Ace Trainer call out

Rachel grinned "I know, isn't it?" she peddled on with a smile, and the Ace Trainer only shook her head and muttered

"Newbies – always happy"

A slight breeze picked up as Rachel continued to make her way across the painfully long bridge.

Meanwhile, with some poor, rideless Pokémon trianers…

"Can… we… take… a… break?" Bianca huffed out, she leaned over and rested her hands on her knees and looked up at Cheren. Beside her, Hilbert collapsed on the cool metal bridge.

Cheren looked insulted that Bianca would even suggest such a thing "how could you say such blasphemous words?!"

Hilbert and Bianca shared a look and mouthed "intervention"

Cheren caught what they mouthed, his face rapidly paling "Oh sweet Arceus!" he cried before running off "YOU'LL NEVER CATCH ME ALIVE!"

"WAI FOR ME CHERY!" Bianca hollered, with renewed energy, she chased after him

"And then there were none" Hilbert sighed; he picked himself up and glanced around "OI! WAIT FOR ME!" with that being said, the chestnut haired trainer ran after his friends.

A nearby trainer only looked after them, in confusion "The heck?" he trailed off

OOO

Jack, Jill, John, Jane and Bob all stood in front of the new Plasma HQ (Castelia building) out of uniform.

"time to face the music" Jill sighed "if I get put on Bathroom detail, I swear to Arceus above, I WILL hunt each of you down and cut your vocal cords out and eat them for breakfast!"

"With eggs?" Jack put in and all the TP grunts, currently there, backhanded him

Jill only face palmed, she seemed to be doing that a lot lately, she wouldn't be surprised if she got a permanent red hand mark on her forehead.

The five of them shuffled in to be greeted by Ghetsis, and Jill flinched; this would NOT be good.

The natural blonde looked over at her teammates (minus Jack) and she mouthed "do it"

They nodded and Jill shouted

"FOR SANITY!" the four all at once jumped on Jack and there was a cloud of dust, obstructing Ghetsis' view, he frowned and waited until the four grunts finished their scuffle – he would have to punish them for that, later.

When they were finished –ahem, _settling their differences_- Ghetsis was shocked to see that one of the grunts, Mack, Zack, something like that, was hogtied with taffy and had a duct tape gag.

"Mhmm!" he protested

"Ready to be chewed out, er, I mean, ready to report Lord Ghetsis' Jill told him

Ghetsis only stared openly for a second before snapping himself back to reality "right, now. WHAT PART OF DO NOT MESS UP DO YOU **NOT** UNDERSTAND?!"

"With all due respect Lord Ghetsis, but apparently, the 'do not mess up' part" Bob told him

Jill, John and Jane turned to him

"I hate you" Jill told him and Ghetsis only slammed Bob's head onto the counter in sheer exasperation.

OOO

Rachel got down off her Unicycle and put it in her bag, she barely spared a look towards all the buildings as she made her way to the pokecenter, luckily for Rachel, it was pretty much a strait path from the gate leading into the city.

"_Ah! Man! Mistress! I missed the excitement!_" inferno complained, coming out of her pokéball, she looked up at Rachel and pouted

Rachel looked at her starter and laughed "Trust me Inferno, there wasn't much excitement."

Inferno just looked at her and grumbled something incomprehensible as she walked along with her Mistress. Contrary to what she thought, Inferno had some memories from when she was an egg.

A fire blast, a warm smile, hushed whispers of someday being great. Inferno sighed tiredly, Mistress Rachel was still in great pain over what had happened and the fire type doubted that Mistress Rachel would ever forgive herself.

**And done! Man, I have to say, I really enjoy writing the grunts! ANYHOW! Eight days til x-mas and some family is coming so I won't beable to write chap 13 until afterwards, but I do plan to post a one-shot. All I'm going to say about it is that I plan to have an impromptu Christmas tree…**

**Thanks for reading and please note that Jill, John, Bob and Jane aren't afraid to suddenly jump any flamers.**

*** = does his hair remind anyone else of fire?**


	14. Chapter 13

**I do not own Pokémon, nor do I own Ghetsis or any of the characters EXCEPT for Rachel. I don't even own a car or a DSi…**

**Rated K+ for mild *cough* violence, oh and complete randomness.**

* * *

**I couldn't get the Christmas special written in time; first we spent a week cleaning the house top to bottom and then the cousins were over for a week… so yeah… sorry, I had some funny ideas… maybe next year…**

* * *

_Flashback, she had said this a thousand times before…_

"_Pokémon speaking_" Snivy said

"People speaking" Rachel said

'I am a little voice in your head'/'SHUT UP!' mind arguing

"'_quotes from the games'"_

*cue dramatic music*

…

Shade of Grey

Chapter 13

Bianca sighed to herself as she watched Cheren and Hilbert argue over the map of Castelia City. The blonde fought the urge to facepalm – those two hadn't changed one bit. She remembered how they met – arguing over what color the ocean was; Cheren said it was green and Hilbert said it was blue.

Bianca stifled a laugh over that memory; she figured the two boys wouldn't like her laughing at them. Even if she was laughing at something they had done years ago

"You two do realize you're holding the map upside down, right?" Bianca asked, letting out a chuckle which turned into full blown laughter when she saw the identical dismayed looks on Cheren's and Hilbert's faces.

"Did you two practice that or something?" Bianca asked, gasping for breath, she looked up at them from her position; bending over slightly while resting her hands on her knees.

Hilbert and Cheren shared a look before exclaiming in unison "you really cut me deep Bianca! How _could_ you think that perfection could be practiced?"

Bianca stood up and gave her friends a strange look "I'm going to find Rachel – at least she's semi-normal!"

"Her?" Hilbert questioned "Remember at Trainer's camp a year ago? She went through six different campmates before they finally put you two together!"

"Normal, heck, even _semi-normal_ is an insult to her." Cheren cleared "she's just plain CRAZY!"

"Awww shucks Chery Dear-I didn't think you thought so highly of me!" Cheren yelped as Rachel suddenly appeared behind him, her eyes twinkling in amusement (reminding them of Dumbledore)

"YES! THANK YOU WHOEVER IS UP THERE!" Bianca cried, she ran over to Rachel and proceeded to drag her down the street

"You know what Cheren – I think Bianca just used Rachel to get away from us." Hilbert told his best friend, who only facepalmed.

OOO

"Why do I have the feeling that bathroom detail is less of a punishment?" Jill asked as she and Jane made lemonade to sell

Jane shrugged "I dunno, but I'm glad I'm not the mascot!" she jerked her head towards a miserable Bob was standing, fully decked in a lemon suit.

"Thank Arceus for small mercies" Jill muttered as she poured in the lemon

Jane only stared at her team leader with confusion "Arceus?" she repeated

"He's a Sinnoh legendary, the Alpha Pokémon." Jill told her "Creator of All."

Jane snorted "I doubt that Jill."

"I thought Sage Ghetsis banned all discussion of religion after what happened on April 27th" Jack butted in; he looked between the two girls. Jill blushed and muttered something under her breath about

"Mewists"

"I never did get a clear answer on what happened that day" Jane told her senior pointedly

The blonde huffed and crossed her arms, she leaned against the fence "Let's just say Team Plasma is full of different beliefs… and it was Jack's fault!"

"How was I supposed to know someone would take offense?!" Jack defended himself; he had just come up to the stand with a pitcher of water in time to hear the latter part of Jane and Jill's conversation.

Jill only rolled her eyes as she walked over to the stand and placed the pitcher on the top "Go get us some victims jack!" she hissed, loud enough for only Jane and Jack to hear her.

OOO

Rachel wandered around Castelia city after ditching Bianca at the Art Gallery, it seemed like she was just wandering aimlessly to everyone else, but she was really mapping out the city in her mind… okay! Who was she kidding?! She was lost.

Rachel groaned, she had left her bag in her pokecenter room and the only Pokémon on her was Venus.

"Just my luck" she mumbled walking pass a lemonade stand with a lemon mascot, she inclined her head towards them.

"…I swear Jane! If Lord Ghetsis assigns _another_ useless grunt to my team… let's just say his hair might not be the only thing that's green." Rachel heard a familiar voice mutter from the lemonade stand. The brunette stopped for a moment and turned to face said stand. There was a blonde woman, about mid 20s leaning against the stand talking to a smaller girl who looked barely 18.

"Please Jill, it's not like you can do anything about it" the eighteen year old told her companion

"I didn't know team Plasma had a lemonade stand" Rachel commented, deciding that now would be a good time to reveal herself

The two women whirled around, the older one, Jill, holding a pokéball and Rachel took a step back

"YOU!" they both exclaimed at the same time

"When I said if I never saw you again, it'd be too soon, I meant it!" Rachel snarled at Jill "I should have recognized you from the first meeting!"

Jill scoffed "I thought you were pretending when you called yourself Rachel DiAblo. But it seems I was wrong!"

Jane looked between them "do you know each other?" she asked

"Unfortunely" both girls growled, glaring at each other

"Jill, settle down" Jane told the older women, trying to get Jill to calm down and not cause a scene.

Rachel only smirked at the blonde women before walking off and continued to wander the streets of Castelia.

OOO

Bianca groaned as she scanned the crowd for Rachel "why, why, WHY?!" she muttered "oh all the times Rachel decides to get herself lost!" the blonde haired girl ran her right hand though her hair and pulled out Yume, her Munna's pokéball. But before she could let the psychic type out of her pokéball, someone pushed the blonde over and grabbed the pokéball which had fallen from her grasp due to the impact

"YUME!" Bianca cried she looked up to see someone in grey running away with Yume's pokéball clutched in his hand.

STOP THIEF!" Bianca hollered, getting to her feet and chasing after the thief. But she had lost him in the hustle of Castelia City.

* * *

**Finally! I'm done! Sorry it took so long, I had a bad case of Author's Block and then I got writing another story, it's called 'The Many Deaths Of Various FMA Characters', it's a Fullmetal Alchemist fanfic (FMA is pure awesomeness).**

**The grunts are getting bigger roles, wow, I only meant for them to be minor characters. Oh well, if the scarf fits…**

**If anyone wants to write about what happened on April 27****th****, just PM me and mention this story.**


	15. Chapter 14

**I do not own Pokémon, nor do I own Ghetsis or any of the characters EXCEPT for Rachel. I don't even own a car or a DSi…**

**Rated K+ for mild *cough* violence, oh and complete randomness.**

**When I published the first two chapters, it was rated T, but then I lowered the rating to k+ because it wasn't as violant as I thought I was going to be.**

_Flashback, she had said this a thousand times before…_

"_Pokémon speaking_" Snivy said

"People speaking" Rachel said

'I am a little voice in your head'/'SHUT UP!' mind arguing

"'_quotes from the games'"_

*cue dramatic music*

…

Shade of Grey

Chapter 14

* * *

The sun was just about to set by the time Rachel found her way to the pokecenter and the teen girl was hungry and tired and very cranky.

"RACHEL!" Bianca cried, running up to the teen girl "Someone stole Yume!"

Rachel gave her friend a blank look "who?"

Bianca frowned "I called my Munna Yume! And she was stolen from me!"

"It's true!" the purple haired girl who was standing next to Bianca nodded "I saw it happen!"

"Did you see who did it?" Cheren asked, coming up behind Rachel, he looked at Bianca, slightly concerned.

"It was a man, he was wearing something grey and he had red hair" Bianca told them

"Team Plasma" Rachel growled "Let's go find those thieves!"

Cheren looked at her "Do you have all your Pokémon?" he asked, looking at the brunette, Rachel frowned slightly as she remembered she only had Venus on her

"Let me get everyone else" she told the black haired teen, before running into the center

Cheren turned to Bianca and the purple haired girl

"Alright" he said, assuming the role of leader "Bianca and…" he trailed off, looking at the girl next to Bianca

"Iris" the girl filled in

"Iris, you two check Mode street, I'll take narrow street and…"

"I'll take Gym street" Rachel volunteered, appearing at Iris' elbow "and Central Plaza"

Cheren nodded "I'll call Hilbert and have him check Castelia Street" the dark haired teen pulled out his X-transceiver and began to fiddle with it.

Rachel looked at the recuse party "I'll go and start checking Central Plaza" she told Cheren before jogging away.

Almost immediately, Stormer came out of his pokéball "_Where are you headed mistress?_" the Blitzle neighed as he trotted alongside Rachel

Rachel looked at her Pokémon "Central Plaza" she told him nonchalantly

Stormer only looked at his Mistress; sometimes it seemed as if Rachel could understand Pokémon with the way she reacted and acted. She never said anything about being able to understand them… not like that N fellow. Who Inferno swore a blood feud against… or at least acted like she did.

Stormer was very confused – If Mistress Rachel _could_ understand Pokémon, then why did she not say anything? Was that ability bad and that's why Inferno hated N, and she was afraid that Inferno would hate her?

"Stormer!" Rachel called; the electric type looked up to see his Mistress stand at the top of the street.

The Blitzle hurried up to his Mistress but he was halfway there when he crashed into someone.

"_Sorry!_" the Pokémon muttered, vaguely aware of his surroundings. He shook his head to try and clear it but it didn't help.

"HEY!" he heard Mistress Rachel yell "Get away from my Pokémon you creep!"

He felt himself get picked up and it went through his head that the person's hand were too big and rough to be his Mistress'.

"Mistress!" he whinnied as the person holding him took off.

"Stormer! STORMER!"

OOO

Hilbert sighed as he searched Castelia Street for any signs of a Plasma Grunt. He had been training to beat the gym when Cheren called him and requested… no demanded, that he helped them.

Just as he turned around to head back towards the Pokecenter, Someone crashed into him.

"HEY!" Hilbert exclaimed, stumbling a few steps, he turned around "Watch where… Rachel?" he asked, his tone softening as he took in the sight of his friend; her eyes were red and she had tear tracks running down her face. In her right hand was clutched a pokéball.

"Rachel? What happened?" Hilbert asked, gently clasping her shoulders

"Stormer" she mumbled, looking down at her boots, she shook her head "TP stole him…"

Hilbert was furious at Team Plasma; he had viewed Rachel as a younger sister shortly after the two became met.

"I'm going to kill them" he growled, his brown eyes flashing

"_Ring Ring, Ring Ring_" Hilbert's X-transceiver rang, interrupting Hilbert's murderous thoughts.

Hilbert answered it, annoyance lacing his voice as he growled "What?"

Cheren looked taken aback "I found TP's base, it's by the gym. We'll be waiting for you." The dark haired teen told Hilbert before hanging up.

OOO

Cheren tapped his foot impatiently as he waited for Hilbert and Rachel to show up –he knew that if they were to storm TP's base, well, they would need every person they could get for backup.

Only moments later, he caught sight of Hilbert walking towards them with Rachel in tow.

Cheren waved his left hand above his head to try and get the two's attention. It worked because they started over to him.

"There you two are!" Cheren greeted them when they were in hearing distance

"Are we ready to raid TP's base?" Hilbert asked the dark haired teen, his eyes glinting dangerously.

OOO

Jane was sitting comfortably in the desk chair, after their shift at the lemonade stand when a group of five people caught her attention; they were at the door, trying to push it open.

Jane stifled a laugh as she watched them try and fail. Then she saw Bob run into foyer and pale

"Ah crap!" he groaned "looks like I had a Herdier on my tail!"

Jane paled at Bob's sentence and pressed the button under the desk which had been dubbed "The you-better-not-press-this-button-unless-we-are-in- real-danger-or-Ghetsis-will-have-your-head button"

It only took a few minutes before Ghetsis, Bronius, Rood and Jane appeared out of the elevator.

"What is it?" Ghetsis asked coldly, he directed his glare at Jane who simply pointed to the group outside who had finally figure out that they were supposed to pull the door open instead of pushing it.

Ghetsis smirked as Bronius stood on Ghetsis' left and Rood took the other place at Ghetsis' right.

Jill waved Bob and Jane over as they stood behind the three sages.

"'_My word'_" Ghetsis sneered as the five people burst into the room, pokéballs ready as if for a battle "'_If it isn't the Gym Leader, Burgh_.'"

Burgh bristled at Ghetsis' tone "'_So'_" the Gym Leader said, his tone challenging "'_What would you say the guiding principle of Team Plasma is anyway?_'" he looked Ghetsis in the eye "' "_Take Pokémon from people?_" '"

Bronius turned to Ghetsis, his tone pleading "I thought that it would be amusing if our hideout was across from the gym" he explained before shrugging "But, unfortunately, we were detected much more quickly than we anticipated."

Ghetsis mulled that thought over "Indeed…" he mused before coming up with an attack plan "It does no matter; we already have an exceptional base of operations. I trust you all are familiar with the legend of Unova?"

"I am!" Iris said excitedly "it's about that black dragon, umm… I know his name started with Z…"

Ghetsis stepped forward and stopped in front of Burgh "The Black dragon, stood before a hero and sought for an ideal way to unite a world filled with warring people." He looked over the group and his gaze rested on Hilbert "The Dragon shared his knowledge and bore his fangs at those who dare to oppose it. Together, the hero and dragon united the people of Unova and Pokémon together. That is how Unova was created." He began to pace, before stopping in front of Hilbert "We will bring back that hero and the Dragon to Unova once more! If we can win people's hearts and minds, then we can create a better world that I and Team Plasma desire!"

Burgh looked at Ghetsis "But" he added "there are many different types of people here in Castelia city. Everyone's thinking and ways of life are very different then each other's. Quite honestly, there is something I don't understand about you lot."

"What is it?" Jane asked, she leaned forward slightly

"Despite all out differences, there is one thing we share in common; our love for Pokémon. Even people who have just met can talk about Pokémon, or battle or trade." Burgh took a step forward and looked Ghetsis in the eye "'_Remember your speech at Accumula Town?'_ You were the one to inspire me to rethink my relationship with my Pokémon, and I thank you for that. For at that time, I made a promise that I would dedicate myself even more strongly to Pokémon. Aren't you lot trying to strengthen the bond between Pokémon and people even more?"

"Muwhahaha!" Ghetsis laughed "You, my dear Gym Leader, are very hard to figure out! More intelligent then I gave you credit for! I am quite fond of intelligent people, so you'll enjoy this; from every corner of the world, I have sought for intelligent people for our King's benefit. You call them the Seven Sages. So be it! We submit your opinion and shall be on our way." Ghetsis looked over at Jill "That girl over there" he said, nodding at Bianca "return her pokemon!"

Jill nodded and released the Munna out of the pokeball bob had given her.

"_BIANCA!"_ the Munna squealed and floated quickly over to her trainer.

"Yume!" Bianca nearly cried with relief, she hugged the psychic type before looking at Jill "Thank you…"

Cheren wanted to slap himself "Bianca, why on earth did you just thank the person who stole your Munna?"

Bianca looked at him, her eyes full of unshed tears "Because I'm so happy to have Yume back" she explained

Ghetsis sneered "the friendship between Pokémon and humans can be very touching…"

Hilbert interrupted him "What about my cousin's Pokémon?! Huh?"

"Return it too" Rood told Bob who released the Blitzle

"_When I evolve, I swear to Zekrom above I will FRY you for taking me from my… Mistress? MISTRESS!"_ Stromer neighed, before galloping over to Rachel.

Rachel knelt down on the floor and enveloped Stormer in a hug "You're safe Stormer, you're safe…" she said, choking down tears.

"But" Ghetsis told the group, gaining their attention "We will still liberate Pokémon from foolish people! We WILL revive the legend of Unova! Farewell…"

* * *

**YAY! I'm finished! I love the protective Hilbert, so there will be much more of that in the future.**

**For all you Chessshippers, this fanfiction IS NOT a chesshipper story, it is Ferriswheelshipping!**

**Yes, I had Stormer stolen, don't kill me. Next chapter is route 4 and the famous Ferris Wheel scene!**

**I am on DeviantART, my username is LadySmugleaf. But that's enough from me… go and review!**


	16. Chapter 15

**I do not own Pokémon, nor do I own Ghetsis or any of the characters EXCEPT for Rachel. I don't even own a car or a DSi…**

**Rated K+ for mild *cough* violence, oh and complete randomness.**

_Flashback, she had said this a thousand times before…_

"_Pokémon speaking_" Snivy said

"People speaking" Rachel said

_'I am a little voice in your head_!' N thought

"'_quotes from the games'"_

*cue dramatic music*

…

Shade of Grey

Chapter 15

* * *

Hilbert stepped out of the Gym, covered in honey but with a gym badge in hand.

Cheren looked at him "What in Victini's name happened?" he asked the teen as Rachel stumbled out of the gym, covered in honey and clutching her own gym badge.

"Burgh asked that we don't tell anyone – apparently, he likes to watch everyone's reactions." Hilbert explained

Cheren took one look at them and took another look at the gym "I'm going to get a poncho" he muttered before walking towards the pokecenter.

Hilbert and Rachel smirked at each other and high-fived

"Five bucks says he'll try to eat his way through" Hilbert told her

"Are you joking?!" Rachel gave him a look "Ten says he'll use one of his Pokémon!"

"You're on" the two shook hands and Rachel gave Hilbert a grin

"I feel bad taking your money like this Hilby"

"Ditto Hilly" Hilbert smirked and Rachel wacked him upside the head

"OOOH RACHEL~!" the two heard a familiar voice call and Rachel cringed

The brown haired teen grasped Hilbert's shoulders and looked him in the eyes "I am not here; you have never seen me in your entire life. I am a stranger." She told him, her face grave.

Hilbert grinned evilly "SHE'S OVER HERE BIANCA!" he hollered, waving the blonde over

Rachel glared at Hilbert "Traitor" she muttered before running away from the blonde "YOU'LL NEVER TAKE ME ALIVE!"

"LET ME LOVE YOU!" Bianca cried, running towards the brown haired teen girl

Hilbert laughed at Rachel's predicament before heading to the Pokémon center for a shower

OOO

"I am an idiot!" Rachel yelled as she trudged through the sand, she hadn't taken a shower like she meant to because Bianca was on a sugar rush and when Bianca is on a sugar rush there was only one thing to do – run for your life and pray she gets distracted… okay, _two_ things, but who's counting? But back to the problem on hand… she, Rachel DiAblo was walking in deep sand, where Pokémon dwelt, covered in honey… not one of her brighter ideas.

"_HOOMAN!_" A Sandile cried before launching himself on Rachel's head

As Inferno knocked the Sandile away, Rachel sighed and face palmed.

"Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!" Rachel mumbled, frowning to herself as she continued on her way to Nimbasa City.

OOO

Cheren looked at the wall of honey in front of him "Holy mother of Victini" he gaped

OOO

N watched as both Rachel and Hilbert beat back some grunts. The green haired teen looked at them thoughtfully; both of them could be the hero of Truth. Unlike some people, N was excited that there could be an opposite hero, someone whose beliefs conflicted with his.

"_N"_ N looked over at his friend, Zorro the Zoroark "_A penny for your thoughts?_"

"I was just thinking about the White Hero" N replied, still watching the two as they spilt up to search the city.

Zorro groaned "_Do you _have_ to keep obsessing Natural? By the legends! You are worse than a teenage girl with a crush!_"

N felt his face flush red "Oh be quiet" he told his friend

"_Now that you mention it Zorro, me thinkest you are right."_ Ali Baba the Liepard snickered from N's other side

Zorro looked at Ali Baba "_I thought you were going to find a mate and live in the Lostlorn forest."_ He commented

Ali Baba shrugged "_You two are more amusing._" The dark type offered

N looked at the two Pokémon "Should I tell Rachel?" he asked, his voice quiet

"_It really depends, N"_ Zorro answered "_I think you should. How she reacts would be a good indicator if she's a worthy mate or not."_

"_True"_ Ali Baba agreed "_I think you should tell her. I think she would make a worthy mate. She treats her Pokémon as well as you treat us."_

N blushed redder at the mate remark "I'm not looking for a mate!" he nearly shouted, gaining strange looks

"_Ah, but that is the best way to find one."_ Zorro smirked and N face palmed.

OOO

Rachel ran into the amusement park, she had just gotten to Nimbasa when she saw Hilbert battling some TP grunts.

She had sent Venus to help him and together they managed to beat back both of the grunts.

While Hilbert was talking to the daycare man, Rachel went towards the amusement park area.

"Inferno! Come on out!" Rachel called; she let out her beloved starter of her pokéball.

"_Yes Mistress_?" Inferno asked as she matched Rachel's pace.

"Nothing Inferno – We're just looking for some TP grunts." The brown haired teen told the fire type

"_Okay then… can't wait to beat the crap out of them!_" Inferno cheered and Rachel's lips twitched upwards.

"I'll make sure you're the lead Pokémon then" Rachel told her starter as they passed gear station.

While Inferno cheered, Rachel felt Stormer's pokéball shake as if he was objecting.

The trainer nearly rolled her eyes at Inferno's and Stormer's rivalry – She hoped that it would remain friendly and not turn into something worse.

After all, there was a line between rivalry and hatred. Which Rachel hoped would never be crossed.

Rachel had just entered the amusement park when she saw "N!" Rachel called, surprised "How are you?"

N looked away from the vending machine "Rachel!" he called, stuffing his money back into his pocket and walked up to the teen "It's good to see you"

"_STAY AWAY FROM MY MISTRESS!_" Inferno roared, sending a few embers N's way

N quickly took a couple steps back and Rachel looked at Inferno

"Why In Arceus' name did you do that Inferno?" Rachel asked, she looked at her starter

"_Because he is the reincarnation of the devil himself!_" Inferno declared with all the passion she could muster

Rachel and N stared at Inferno; they were both completely and utterly shocked

"I-I-I have nothing to say about that" Rachel said, her voice faint

"I don't think Inferno likes me very much" N commented, he looked at the Sinnoh Pokémon

"Inferno, are you going to be this troublesome?" Rachel sighed; she looked at the fire type.

"_Yes"_ was Inferno's stubborn reply.

"Return" Rachel returned Inferno to her pokéball "Sorry about that…what's wrong N?"

N looked at the pokéball in disgust "Pokéballs are vile things" he said shortly "They capture and confide my friends."

"That's one point of view" Rachel pointed out "But if Inferno had stayed out, she would have attacked you with something a lot more powerful then ember. But anyway, enough about that… have you seen any toilet paper lackeys around here?"

N only looked confused "toilet paper lackeys?" he repeated.

"Team Plasma grunts" Rachel explained waving her left hand in the air.

N only stared at Rachel for a moment, not knowing what to say about a comment like that

"Have you seen them?" N was broken out of his thoughts when Rachel repeated her question

"They ran passed me, deeper into the amusement park" N supplied "If we go to the Ferris wheel – we might have a better chance for finding them."

"Well? What are we waiting for?! Let's go!" Rachel called, she grabbed N's wrist and started running towards the Ferris wheel.

OOO

As they reached the Ferris wheel, Rachel loosened her grip and stopped suddenly "wow" she breathed "It's so big!"

Beside her, N rubbed his wrist and nodded "I love Ferris wheels" he told her

Rachel turned to him "really?" she asked, looking like an excited ten year old rather than the sixteen year old she was.

N nodded "'_T__he circular motion… The mechanics… They're like collections of elegant formulas'_" he explained, his grey blue eyes wide with fascination

The two just stood there for a few minutes, admiring the Ferris wheel

"HEY LOVEBIRDS!" the two were broken out of their thoughts by the Ticketmaster's loud voice "Ya wanna ride or not?"

Rachel blushed, but the two bought tickets and climbed aboard.

The brown haired trainer grinned widely as they began to move up "WOW!" she exclaimed "I can see everything from up here!"

As Rachel was admiring the scenery, N was debating whether to tell Rachel of his Team Plasma position.

"_N… Tell her…"_ N could hear Zorro say

"What is heaven's name is a Yanmega with a Liepard doing outside our window?" Rachel yelped, pointed at the two grinning Pokémon and N felt the urge to face palm.

"_Have you confessed your undying love for her yet_?" Ali Baba asked

N cleared his throat to get Rachel's attention "Rachel" he said, gathering up all his courage; despite meeting so few times, he valued Rachel's company and didn't want to lose her.

"Yes?" Rachel sat across from him, a smile still on her face

"There's something I want to tell you" N rushed out, he forced himself to look into Rachel's eyes '_H__ere goes nothing'_

"I am the king of Team Plasma."

* * *

**Please don't kill me… this was **_**the**_** perfect stopping point!**

**Please check out my deviantART account; I have uploaded two picture ~spoilers~ of Rachel's past!**

**Remember; I'm LadySmugleaf**

**Reviews, review, they're good for the muse. The more we have, the more we write.**


	17. Chapter 16

**This is a shout out to all my readers, reviews, Fav-ers and follows! There is an important poll on my profile concerning this story! CHECK IT OUT!**

…

**I do not own Pokémon, nor do I own Ghetsis or any of the characters EXCEPT for Rachel. I don't even own a car or a DSi…**

**Rated K+ for mild *cough* violence, oh and complete randomness.**

_Flashback, she had said this a thousand times before…_

"_Pokémon speaking_" Snivy said

"People speaking" Rachel said

'I am a little voice in your head'/'SHUT UP!' mind arguing

"'_quotes from the games'"_

*cue dramatic music*

…

Shade of Grey

Chapter 16

* * *

Rachel looked at N, she felt her breathing hitch and her eyes widening '_no, no, no, no!_ She thought fanatically '_this cannot be happening!_'

"_Mistress!"_ Rachel heard Inferno cry out and that numbly brought her back

"You're kidding" Rachel murmured lowly, she glanced down at Inferno, who sat in her lap. Her breathing easing a bit up at the sight of her beloved starter, Rachel looked up at N.

"I assure you" N told her "I am not kidding"

Rachel froze up and Inferno responded with

"_You hurt Mistress._" The fire type stated simply, her features full of hate "_Nobody hurts Mistress!_"

With another flash of light; Venus came out of her pokéball.

In a rear moment of sobriety, the grass type snapped "_Inferno! Enough_!"

Inferno stopped and looked at Venus "_But he hurt Mistress!_"

"_You can deal with him later then! We are in a confided space and besides, Mistress doesn't need you attacking him!_"

The fire/fighting type nodded, and with a glare at N, climbed up beside Rachel.

OOO

Outsides, Ali Baba groaned "_We have to try a lot harder to get N mated._"

OOO

Back inside, Rachel and N sat in silence as the ride neared the end.

"Inferno, Venus, return" Rachel said shakily as she returned the two sinnoh Pokémon.

Rachel wished she could say something; but no words came. She followed N out of the ride and before he could say anything; two plasma grunts came running up.

"My lord N!" John said

"You're safe" Jane added

N looked between the grunts and Rachel

"'_There's no problem'"_ he told the grunts, turning to Rachel; he said "I have a vision; but I need people to help me fulfill it. They're part of the people we brought in to help Pokémon. So they're under my protection, do you follow my logic?"

Rachel looked at the green haired teen "no" she said softly, so many words in her mind, so many responses. But she couldn't bring herself to say them.

N looked disappointed "'_So that's how it is... That's unfortunate. Ah. Then... The future I envision... Perhaps I can't beat you here and now, but I'll battle you anyway to buy time for these members of Team Plasma to flee.'"_ He pulled out a pokéball and looked to Rachel to do the same.

But Rachel had fallen to her knees, looking at the ground, unresponsive and shaking slightly

"RACHEL!" N heard Hilbert yell; the brown haired teen ran over to Rachel and knelt beside her "Are you okay? Does it hurt? Can you stand?"

N looked on as Rachel just shook her head. Hilbert gently picked her up and walked passed N and towards the pokecenter.

Jane looked after them "That poor girl" she whispered

John nodded and N looked at them in confusion

"What do you mean?" he asked, putting the pokéball away

"I recognize the signs of a mental breakdown with ease, Lord N" Jane replied softly "Whatever you told her, had a profound effect."

OOO

Hilbert placed Rachel on the bed, took her shoes off and put the blanket on her. Sighing quietly; the brown haired teen pulled up a chair and sat there. He didn't know what that boy, N, had said to her to have such an effect on Rachel. She was very strong and brave. But however, Rachel had a kryptonite; her past.

He remembered when she first had a mental breakdown; she had just been there for a few months when Bianca's house caught on fire. He remembered vividly as Rachel stood there, before running into the forest, crying something about someone called "Cyrus".

Everyone had helped look for her; but it was still hours before Prof. Juniper found her, huddled in a ball, and sobbing.

His mom had called a doctor from Castelia and he remembered the conversation that changed his life:

"_What's wrong with Rachel Dr. Johnson?" Hilbert heard his mom ask_

_The doctor sighed "I can't tell for sure, but it seems she's showing signs of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder."_

_Hilbert heard his mom gasp before asking "How can we tell for sure?"_

"_Here's my number, if you take her to my office, we can test." Hilbert heard a pause "Here's a number for a therapist. I recommend weekly sessions."_

_A few minutes later, Hilbert heard the doctor leave and he rushed in the room._

Hilbert sighed and let out her Pokémon from their pokéballs; Inferno immediately ran to Rachel

"_Mistress_?" she asked

"_What happened?_" Stormer looked to Hilbert, who only shrugged; not knowing what they were saying.

"_He hurt her_" Inferno growled, her tail flame glowing with a harsh intensity "_that… monster! He hurt her!_"

"_Calm yourself Inferno!_" Stormer whinnied "_We needn't burn down the pokecenter!_"

"_When I get through with that monster… He's going to beg for death!"_

Hilbert looked between the Pokémon, wishing he could understand them.

"So you're saying N hurt her?" Hilbert guessed wildly, judging from their reactions and the fact, he found her with N…

Inferno nodded and Hilbert felt anger

"That… that…" Hilbert struggled for the right word "ARUGH! I'm going to kill him!"

"_Get in line!"_ Stormer neighed; he pawed at the ground and looked murderous.

Hilbert looked at Rachel; luckily, she had fallen asleep. The teen stood up "I'm going to the lobby. Let me know if she wakes up."

The Pokémon nodded and Hilbert left the room.

OOO

_Rachel grinned and waved good bye to the helpful store clerk. She got on her bike and started towards home. She was nearly there when she caught the smell of smoke?_

_Thinking that it was just a trainer camping out, Rachel didn't think anything of it, until she saw her house._

_Her eyes widened as she took in the sight of it burning. Screams of pain were coming from it and dark smoke rising from the building._

"_DAD!" she called, running towards her home "AUNT DI!" Rachel ran towards the building, gripping her Garchomp; Bowser's pokéball._

_She had only made it a few steps before she saw the roof collapse, silencing all the screams inside._

_Because she wasn't watching where she was going, Rachel tripped and fell flat on her face, Bowser's pokéball rolling away from her._

"_Dad…" she whispered, tears spilling from her eyes "Inferno, Kaze, Static…"_

"_Look what you did Rachel DiAblo" A voice in front of her said_

_Rachel looked up to see Bianca standing there, a knife poking out of her chest "We were friends! How could you do this?"_

"_But I didn't…" Rachel protested_

"_Yeah right" Cheren put in, he walked up to Bianca and pointed to a bullet hole between his eyes "Don't deny it, you killed me!"_

"_We were friends Rachel. Why did you kill us?" Rachel gasped and Hilbert appeared, covered in burns_

"_Why Rachel?" Bianca, Cheren and Hilbert repeated in unison "Why did you kill your friends?"_

_Rachel closed her eyes, horrified when she heard another voice_

"_You aren't at all like I thought." Rachel heard N exclaim angrily, the brown haired teen closed her eyes tighter "I thought you loved your Pokémon! I thought you were different! But NO! You abuse them like every other trainer… no! What you did was worse – You KILLED them!"_

_There was silence, gathering her courage; Rachel looked up to see Cyrus, scowling coldly down at her._

_Suddenly, he was choking her, Rachel grasped at his hands, trying to tear them away from her neck. But her efforts failed._

_As spots began to appear in her eyes, Rachel looked back up to see N in place of Cyrus._

"_Rachel!" She heard her name being called, but Rachel couldn't talk, she only could try to pry N's hands off_

"_Rachel!"_

"_RACHEL!"_

OOO

Hilbert was on his way back to Rachel's room to check on her when he heard screaming.

The brown haired teen burst into the room to see Rachel flailing on the bed; screaming her lungs out and her Pokémon trying to calm her.

"Rachel!" Hilbert exclaimed, he ran over to her side "Rachel, it's nothing but a nightmare" he tried to soothe, but was interrupted by another scream coming from her.

Hilbert sat on the bed and forced Rachel to sit up; enveloping her in a hug "Rachel, Rachel Rachel, shhh… It's nothing but a dream."

Rachel calmed down and Hilbert released her from the hug "It felt so real" she murmured, staring at her hands "Everyone was gone. The fire was seemed so real and…" Rachel broke off, trembling.

"It's okay Rachel" Hilbert drew her into a hug "I've got you. No one is going to hurt you on MY watch." Not for the first time since bringing Rachel to the pokecenter, Hilbert cursed N in his mind.

* * *

**And finished… for now.**

**Next chapter will finish up Nimbasa… hopefully. Oh! And Rachel gets a new pokemon.**

**Wow… everyone hates N, Stormer, Hilbert, Inferno… who's next?**

**This is a shout out to all my readers, reviews, Fav-ers and follows! There is an important poll on my profile concerning this story! CHECK IT OUT!**

**Remember, review motivate me, when I'm motivated that means another chapter will come out faster!**


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